The opening of Sjöblom’s riveting debut provides the dictionary definitions of two words: the eponymous “Palimpsest”, and “Adoption”.

These two ideas are at the molten core of this remarkable graphic novel, as its author remembers her upbringing as a transracial adoptee in Sweden.

Sjöblom carefully unravels what it meant—and indeed what it means—to exist within these pluralities, and how to reckon one’s identity with an uncertain personal history. How these questions affect one's ability to parent, and the relationship between mother and child, surface as Sjöblom processes her enigmatic personal history.

 Sjöblom’s unaddressed feelings about her own adoption come to a head when she is pregnant with her first child. When she discovers a document containing the names of her biological parents, she realizes her own history may not match up with the story she’s been told her whole life: that she was an orphan without a background. 

In her debut graphic novel Sjöblom explores this complex, emotionally-charged territory in a subdued colour palette and graphic style that is tender and intimate. Her captivating prose invites the reader to contemplate their own definitions of identity, history and motherhood.