All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey

A graphic memoir about the legacies of upheaval, a longing for family, and the barriers one daughter faces in trying to connect with her immigrant parents.

AVAILABLE SEPT. 24
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CANADA
Amazon.ca | Arsenal Pulp Press | Shop Local

U.S.
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  • “I love this book with my whole heart. Every line, written and drawn, sings. In it, we find grief and tenderness, astonishing escapes and endless afterlives. All Our Ordinary Stories will pass from hand to hand, it is a treasure, a compass, and a hope.”

    Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

  • “Teresa Wong’s growing deftness of the comic form is on full display in All Our Ordinary Stories, an exciting follow-up to her debut graphic memoir, Dear Scarlet. A meditation on bridging distances—of time, place, language, and understanding—this book is an important addition to the Canadian comics canon.”

    Jillian Tamaki, co-creator of Roaming

  • “Through her simple, thoughtful drawings and sensitive storytelling, Teresa Wong details the intense love and pervasive worry of being a child of immigrants. This story is a deeply empathetic one about what it means to belong to a family. It’s riveting, and it’s profound.”

    Liana Finck, New Yorker cartoonist and author

  • “All Our Ordinary Stories bravely and completely captures the second-generation experience—the grief, frustration and impossibility of trying to reassemble what has been concealed, lost or erased. At its core, this is a poignant tribute to immigrant mothers, to quiet love, to finding comfort in 'simple' gestures, like a fleeting moment of holding hands.”

    Vivek Shraya, author of People Change and Death Threat

  • “Teresa Wong’s All Our Ordinary Stories is anything but: her masterfully-paced graphic memoir takes us through the tiny heartbreaks and beats that make up our families and ourselves, beautifully articulating what is often difficult to express. Reading this book is a project in expanding our capacity to care for one another. I loved it; you will too.”

    Kristen Radtke, author of Seek You

  • “From Mao’s China to Hong Kong to a quiet food court in suburban Calgary, Teresa follows the trail of her parents and grandparents, and learns that there are no easy conversations that can fix the damage of oppression, displacement, and trauma. But All Our Ordinary Stories simultaneously shows us that we can always bear witness and lovingly carry what is passed down. An extraordinary book.”

    Jen Sookfong Lee, author of Superfan

  • “I was truly moved by Wong’s insights into the invisible life of families, her ability to capture inexpressible histories and emotional undercurrents. But what will stay with me is the powerful, transformative story of Wong’s development as an artist. This wise book, both beautiful in form and content, is a masterclass in surviving through creativity.”

    Kyo Maclear, author of Unearthing