Ginseng Roots
From the renowned author of Blankets and Habibi emerges a new graphic memoir that delves into the class divide, childhood labor, family, and our interconnected global world, all centered around Wisconsin’s ginseng farming industry. This sweeping narrative, gorgeously illustrated and beautifully narrated, is Craig Thompson’s magnum opus, as praised by Joe Sacco, author of Palestine and Paying the Land.
When Blankets was first published in 2003, Craig Thompson’s seminal memoir about first love and the loss of faith in rural Wisconsin received widespread acclaim. It won two Eisner and three Harvey Awards and is still regarded as one of the greatest works of graphic storytelling. Now, in his long-awaited return to the autobiographical form, Craig presents a story that was left out of Blankets: Ginseng Roots.
Ginseng Roots follows Craig and his siblings as they spent the summers of their youth toiling on rural Wisconsin farms, weeding and harvesting rows of coveted American ginseng for a mere dollar an hour. In his signature breathtaking pen-and-ink style, Craig intertwines this lost youth with the 300-year-old history of the global ginseng trade, exploring the diverse lives it has connected—from ginseng hunters in ancient China to industrial farmers and migrant harvesters in the American Midwest, and even his own family grappling with the lingering effects of the past.
Stretching from Marathon, Wisconsin, to Northeast China, Ginseng Roots chronicles the rise of industrial agriculture, the decline of American labor, and the search for a sense of belonging in a rapidly changing world.
