Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars

Book excerpt: A graphic novel memoir recounting one parent's unique and wrenching journey caring for a child with a terminal diagnosis When Rick and Emily's infant son Ronan is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, an incurable neurological disorder, they are faced with the practical and emotional hurdles of parenting and loving their son—despite the shadow of inevitable loss. Rick Louis narrates this original graphic memoir, with illustrator Lara Antal translating the space that Ronan occupies before, during, and after his life, using flights of fancy and imagination to express the bizarre, heartbreaking, and sometimes even silly reality of human beings suddenly trapped in an impossible situation. Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars is a graphic memoir for fans of Liana Finck's Passing for Human and Tom Hart's Rosalie Lightning, which was a Goodreads Choice Award semifinalist, Amazon Best Book of 2016, on the Washington Post's Best Graphic Novels of 2016 list, and one of Publishers Weekly's 100 Best Books of 2016. Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars is a story of warmth and of heartbreak—about finding joy in life, no matter how long or short that life might be.