2025 Eisner Award Nominee!
New York Public Library Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2024
American Library Associate Top 10 Best Graphic Novels for Adults of 2024
Starred Review from Publishers Weekly. "It''s a revealing visualization of a rare, ''depersonalizing'' condition and how Sweeney finds ''drops of disabled joy whenever I can.'' Sweeney''s subtle and elegant art reflects the nuance of her moment-to-moment struggle."
An evocative and heartfelt graphic memoir about the challenges of living with a progressive disability.
When Maria Sweeney was young, she kept count of her broken bones. As she grew older, she stopped. Living with Bruck syndrome, a rare progressive condition that gives her very brittle bones and joint abnormalities, meant that those numbers climbed and climbed.
Today, she struggles every day, living in an often-inaccessible world. As an ambulatory wheelchair user, ordinary actions like entering a building, sitting at a café, or holding a cup of tea can be drastically different for her than for others.
With lush illustrations, Maria tells the story of her lifelong struggle to obtain care in an increasingly complicated and disinterested US healthcare system. But for every step that presents a struggle, there''s also beauty, friendship, art, and growth. She documents the relief she''s found in alternative therapies, particularly medical marijuana; in loving community and chosen family; and in nature and her creative practice. A powerfully understated critique of our modern world, Brittle Joints offers a generous, expansive look at how to live and love amidst the challenges of survival.
Industry Reviews
"A flowing journey alighting rage, heartbreak, subtlety, and transcendence that will grow your heart towards anyone suffering a health crisis." -Craig Thompson, author of the award-winning memoir, Blankets
"An invitation to try and understand the reality of being physically limited while being limitless, creative, and free as a bird in the mind." -Karina Shor, author of Silence, Full Stop
"I was deeply moved by this generous offering with beautifully rendered imagery. This memoir is informative for those who have not experienced disability and highly relatable to those who inhabit a body that society and the medical system don't know how to treat." -Natalie Norris, author of Dear Mini
"A gorgeous account of the temporality of illness and the deprivation of selfhood, balanced by a rich savoring of the organic and the beautiful in life from which many of us have much to learn."-MK Czerwiec, author of Taking Turns
"Sweeny details through exquisite storytelling a profound and personal look at life in a world not built for her, interwoven with nourishing experiences of peace and kindness." -Morgan Boecher, author of What's Normal Anyway?
"This tale of pain and doctors is teeming with natural beauty, as life resists infirmity, and talent overflows a fragile vessel." -Sabrina Jones, creator of Our Lady of Birth Control
