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Posted in: Comics | Tagged: autiobiography, blankets graphic novel, Craig Thompson, cultural history, Ginseng Roots: A Memoir, Pantheon Publishing
Ginseing Roots: A Memoir is Craig Thompson's Major New Graphic Novel
Ginseng Roots: A Memoir is acclaimed graphic novelist Craig Thompson's first major work since his bestselling Blankets, out on April 29th
Article Summary
- Craig Thompson's Ginseng Roots intertwines his past with the history of the global ginseng trade.
- The memoir explores his childhood working in Wisconsin's ginseng fields for a dollar an hour.
- Journey spans 300 years, from ancient China to Wisconsin, examining labor and agriculture changes.
- Highly anticipated, the book is featured in top 2025 booklists, releasing April 29th from Pantheon.
Acclaimed graphic novelist Craig Thompson is back with a new work, Ginseng Roots: A Memoir, another autobiographical work that's richer, deeper, and more complex than his previous works.
When Blankets was first published in 2003, Craig Thompson's seminal memoir about first love and faith lost in rural Wisconsin debuted to rapturous acclaim and bestseller lists. The winner of two Eisner and three Harvey Awards, it is to this day considered one of the all-time great works of graphic storytelling. Now, in Craig's long-awaited return to the autobiographical form comes the story that Blankets left out.
Ginseng Roots follows Craig and his siblings, who spent the summers of their youth weeding and harvesting rows of coveted American ginseng on rural Wisconsin farms for one dollar an hour. In his trademark breathtaking pen-and-ink work, Craig interweaves this lost youth with the 300-year-old history of the global ginseng trade and the many lives it has tied together—from ginseng hunters in ancient China to industrial farmers and migrant harvesters in the American Midwest, to his own family still grappling with the aftershocks of the bitter past. Stretching from Marathon, Wisconsin, to Northeast China, Ginseng Roots charts the rise of industrial agriculture, the decline of American labor, and the search for a sense of home in a rapidly changing world.
Ginseng Roots: A memoir is Thompson's most ambitious work to date, going beyond autobiography and delving into world cultural history and its personal links to him, his family, and his personal journey through life. Infinitely curious, searching, and spiritual, centering on a plant with historical, cultural, and mythical dimensions, this book is already part of The Guardian's "Books to Look Forward to in 2025" and Paste Magazine's "The Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books and Memoirs of 2025", amongst many other lists.
Ginseng Roots: A memoir is out on April 29th from Pantheon and is now available for pre-order.
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