12 Brilliant Nonfiction Graphic Novels and Memoirs

New Yorker cover artist, cartoonist, and bestselling author Harry Bliss captures the beauty and heartache of living in You Can Never Die. Interweaving tales of his Philadelphia childhood and evolution as an artist with a profound remembrance of his beloved dog Penny — with whom he shared 17 years—Bliss’s narrative radiates humor, sorrow, and joy. You Can Never Die is a “deeply moving memoir by a person who is not only a gifted artist, but an engaging and insightful writer” (New Yorker cartoonist and author Roz Chast). 

In this New York Times bestseller, celebrated comedian Steve Martin joins forces with Harry Bliss to illustrate Martin’s legendary career in showbiz. Chock-full of Hollywood anecdotes and behind-the-scenes insights — and complemented by Bliss’s wry illustrations — Number One Is Walking is a delightful look at a dazzling cinematic legacy.

Tessa Hulls’ Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction graphic novel debut offers a deep and illuminating look at Chinese history through the eyes of three generations of women. At the center of Hulls’ narrative is her grandmother, Sun Yi — a journalist during the 1949 Communist victory, a bestselling memoirist, and a victim of mental health struggles. A sweeping exploration of generational trauma, love, grief, and home, Feeding Ghosts is a haunting and emotional read.

Kids ask the darndest questions, and Mira Jacob’s six-year-old son is no exception. In an effort to answer her child’s increasingly complicated queries, Jacob delves into the conversations of her past: about race, sexuality, love, and more. In her graphic memoir Good Talk, she explores the answers to those kinds of tough questions with candor and humor. 

A New York Times bestseller, They Called Us Enemy is an award-winning graphic memoir from actor and activist George Takei, cowritten with Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker. As Japanese Americans living on the West Coast during WWII, Takei and his family were subjected to Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. Forced to leave their home and move to a relocation center, young Takei and his loved ones spent years behind barbed wire. Takei reflects on his experience, as well as what it means to be American, in this moving and important narrative.

New York Times bestselling author and cartoonist Kate Beaton tells the story of her time spent in the oil sands of Alberta in Ducks. With student debt weighing her down, Beaton trades her seaside hometown for Fort McMurray in Northern Canada, where she spends two years weathering daily traumas and learning difficult truths about the impact — both global and personal — of the fossil fuel industry.

The first book in a three-part series, March by late Congressman John Lewis is an award-winning and bestselling graphic memoir that documents Lewis’s sustained fight for equality in America. In this book, which he cowrote with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, Lewis focuses on his foundational years as a student activist and involvement with the Civil Rights Movement as he considers the state of justice in the modern era. 

Award-winning New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast plumbs the mysteries of her dreams in her nonfiction graphic novel I Must Be Dreaming. By turns unsettling and uproarious, just as dreams often are, Chast’s exploration of what it means to dream is deepened by dream theories from philosophy, psychology, and poetry. Candid and fascinating, I Must Be Dreaming is entirely delightful.

Nonbinary and asexual author Maia Kobabe, whose pronouns are e/em/eir, initially set out to write a book to help explain eir identity to eir family. The result was Gender Queer, an award-winning LGBTQ+ memoir about coming out, coming of age, and the gender-queer experience. A touching story of Kobabe’s personal journey, Gender Queer is essential reading.

In 1956, 111 Palestinians were shot dead in Rafah by Israeli soldiers. Renowned journalist Joe Sacco strives to uncover what really happened that terrible day — and understand the long-lasting conflict that surrounds it — by spending time in Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Younis. A bracing work of investigative journalism, Footnotes in Gaza is a “gripping, important book” (The New York Times Book Review).

In The Best We Could Do, Thi Bui chronicles her family’s immigration journey from war-torn Vietnam in the 1970s. With poignant writing and stunning art, Bui explores ideas of identity, displacement, family, and sacrifice in her American Book Award–winning graphic memoir.

Heartbreak comes with its own kind of hurt, and the mother–daughter team of Suzy Hopkins and New Yorker illustrator Hallie Bateman are here to help guide you through. With levity, hope, and understanding, Hopkins and Bateman offer wisdom and advice on the path to “unbreaking” your heart in What to Do When You Get Dumped.