As many as 25% pregnancies in the U.S. end in loss of the baby. It is a shocking statistic and devastating fact that is difficult for survivors to talk about. But Madeleine Garner, an author and playwright has created a picture book for adults with her friend, the illustrator/data-viz designer and Pentagram partner Giorgio Lupi that inventively and tenderly focuses on the darkness of miscarriage. Your Baby Will Find You: A Story About Loss, Grief and Healing is made expressly to encourage emotionally weary survivors to begin speaking about their experience. Garner guides the reader through her own staggering experience with her simple text and Lupi’s unfettered visual language that is as surprising as it is calming. Lupi designed the book based on a line transformed into representations of the mother, child an surrounding stimuli. I asked Garner and Lupi to comment on this special and unique personal volume — and stunning collaboration.
This story pulls the heartstrings. Whose story is it?
Madeleine’s story.
Where did the inspiration to illustrate it with the line as the main character come from?
Garner: I initially imagined the main character as a circle and the baby as a tiny dot. But only Giorgia could take that tiny seed of a thought and expand it into an entire visual language of lines, color and feeling.
Lupi: As a designer, I approached it less as illustrating isolated moments and more as creating a visual language—an experience that unfolds over time. Having been with Maddy through this process, I wanted the visuals to feel fluid, with no two lines exactly the same, yet all connected through powerful emotions. The abstraction allows readers to project their own stories and feelings onto the imagery, making space for personal interpretation within a shared emotional landscape. The experience of pregnancy, miscarriage and hope is deeply tied to time—waiting, anticipating, grieving, and imagining what could be. I wanted the lines to carry that sense of temporal movement, reflecting how visualizing the future is, in itself, an act shaped by time.
The words are so well composed and paced in the book. What was the process? Did the words come before the art?
Garner: The words came first, but changed many times over many drafts. There are three things that have been the same since the first draft, however: “This is you,” “This is you and your baby,” and the title, “Your Baby Will Find You.” The pacing was influenced by my desire to lead the reader slowly and gently through the story and to the other side. I am also the daughter of a lyricist, so deciphering the cadence and melody of each phrase is etched into my DNA. Intentionality in word choice helps a reader intrinsically feel that they are in good hands.
The book is clearly aimed at an adult audience. What do you want the audience to come away feeling?
Garner: Hope. That their grief can become friends with their joy, and that they will survive this experience that seems insurmountable. I hope they feel held, understood, and less alone.
The book somehow reminds me of a cross between Shel Silverstein and Maira Kalman. Who was your influence for this?
Garner: Shel Silverstein is a huge influence in my life and writing, and I am so pleased that that comes through in the book! The Missing Piece and The Giving Tree have walked with me from childhood, helping me better understand life and myself as I have grown and changed. It is my goal to write books that similarly help people of any age feel more understood. I don’t know Maira Kalman’s work well, but I take her mention as quite a compliment!
The post The Daily Heller: A Linear Story of Grief and Mourning appeared first on PRINT Magazine.