{"title":"Lauren Haldeman","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLauren Haldeman\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts graphic novels that blend intimate storytelling with vivid, emotive art. Her work often explores themes of friendship, family, and the quiet struggles of everyday life, inviting readers into deeply personal narratives with a fresh, authentic voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the poignant reflections found in \u003cem\u003eTeam Photograph\u003c\/em\u003e to the evocative mood of \u003cem\u003eWild That We’re Alive\u003c\/em\u003e, Haldeman’s graphic novels offer a unique blend of visual and literary depth that resonates long after the last page.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"wild-that-were-alive-by-lauren-haldeman-9798881603250","title":"Wild That We're Alive","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou haven’t really experienced how weird and beautiful the world is until you see it through Lauren Haldeman’s eyes. These beautiful diary comics by the award-winning poet offer a fresh, humorous, and emotionally resonant perspective on the wonders and weirdness of everyday life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing the artist and her family—three humans, three cats, and one dog—through twelve months of morning coffees, late night TV, laundry folding, and walks in the woods, \u003cem\u003eWild That We're Alive\u003c\/em\u003e invites the reader to marvel at the wonder and weirdness of the ordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDepicting herself as a wolf on the page, Lauren embraces the moniker “Momboy”: part responsible child-rearing adult and part lovable feral kid. In her particularity, she is all of us: grappling with anxieties, awed by the little things, and ready to throw her hands up and laugh or cry in the face of social media, squirrels, politics, and figuring out what to have for dinner. In these pages, Lauren intersperses her diary comics, pithy observations, and philosophical musings with a handful of painterly full-bleed illustrations to show the passing of the seasons.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLike a Midwestern, sweatpants-wearing Roz Chast, Lauren portrays herself and those around her with affectionate self-deprecation—occasionally grumpy, rarely pretty, but always real. For fans of Lucy Knisley’s portrayals of life with both cats and children and Julia Wertz’s explorations of the ways we struggle and succeed in the work of caring for ourselves and others, \u003cem\u003eWild That We're Alive\u003c\/em\u003e is a debut book from an exciting new voice in comics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47238479905004,"sku":"9798881603250","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/22443603488910.jpg?v=1769044176"},{"product_id":"team-photograph-by-lauren-haldeman-9781956046007","title":"Team Photograph","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn her extraordinary graphic novel, which masterfully incorporates poetry and elements of memoir, Lauren Haldeman layers the warfare of soccer over the battlefields now called Bull Run Regional Park, where, growing up, her soccer team would practise and compete. The park and surrounding town of Fairfax Station, Virginia set the landscape for the book, where the narrator regularly encounters spectral visions of wounded soldiers and very real artefacts of war. 'Wounded wraiths and faceless shapes' float in her hallway at night, and bullet shells, buttons, and human bones surface around the soccer fields in daylight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe narrator turns to poetry and history to make sense of the town and its bloodshed, of its forever attachment to injustice and its inability to restore erased identities. \u003cem\u003eTeam Photograph\u003c\/em\u003e is a journey from research to illumination, and the result is a tender yet powerful reckoning of time and place, proof that the past and the present are inexorably fused together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Curious, lonely, mournful, haunted, and strangely funny.' - Leslie Jamison, author of the \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNYT\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ebestseller \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Empathy Exams\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A stylish meditation on bookish inspiration.' - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Hypnotic... This haunted and haunting work will linger in the minds of readers.' - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'\"The ghosts, long ago, \/ came to me \/ to be seen.\" The accuracy and openness with which Haldeman does this \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eseeing\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e is what makes her such a riveting visual artist and poet... \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTeam Photograph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e becomes a surreal American ghost story which, like memory, shifts and changes under a direct gaze - a memoir as patchwork as the fields of Virginia, unified by the confident sweep of Haldeman's vision.' - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eColorado Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487560384748,"sku":"9781956046007","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/fa9173262499582554bfb918f6f3ec8f.jpg?v=1775774126"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/lauren-haldeman.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}