Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of (In)fertility

by Myriam Steinberg, Christache (Illustrator)

Overview

Winner of the 2021 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.

Gold medal winner in the Graphic Novel/Drawn Book category of the 2022 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

A few months after Myriam Steinberg turned forty, she decided she couldn’t wait any longer to become a mother. She made the difficult decision to begin the process of conceiving a child without a partner. With her family and friends to support her, she picked a sperm donor and was on her way.

But Myriam’s journey was far from straightforward. She experienced the soaring highs and devastating lows of becoming pregnant and then losing her babies. She grappled with the best decision to make when choosing donors or opting for a medical procedure. She experienced first-hand the silences, loneliness, and taboos that come with experiences of fetal loss. Unafraid to publicize her experiences, though, she found that, in return, friends and strangers alike started sharing their own fertility stories with her. Although the lack of understanding and language around fetal loss and grief often made it very hard to navigate everyday life, she nonetheless found solace in the community around her who rallied to support her through her journey.

Through it all, Myriam remained hopeful and here she unflinchingly shares her story with wry humour, honesty, and courage. Beautifully illustrated by Christache, Catalogue Baby is one woman’s story of tragedy and beating the odds, and is a resource for all women and couples who are trying to conceive. Catalogue Baby is a compassionate portrait of fertility and infertility that hasn’t been seen before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781989603642
Publisher:	Page Two Books, Inc.
Publication date:	03/02/2021
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	7.49(w) x 10.15(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Myriam Steinberg is currently a writer. In her past life, she was a visual artist, and event organizer. For 11 years, she was the brains and brawn of the In the House Festival, which brought live performances of all kinds into people’s living rooms and backyards throughout her hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Myriam was nominated for the YWCA Women of Distinction Award for her work on the festival. Her first book, Catalogue Baby, chronicles her years spent trying to conceive a child, as a single woman in her forties. Myriam is fully bilingual in French and English. @catalogue_baby | www.cataloguebabynovel.com

Born in Bristol, England, Christopher D. Ross (Christache) currently works as an illustrator, writer, actor and youth instructor in British Columbia, Canada. He lives with his cats, Wally and Morris, and his partner, Jill, whose love and support throughout the process of drawing this book have been indispensable and to whom he is eternally grateful. He previously illustrated the children's book Some Bunny Loves You. This is his first graphic novel. To see more of his work please visit him online at www.christache.com or on instagram @christachedraws.

Editorial Reviews

A bracingly candid, fearless, and funny look at the misconceptions of conception and the emotional rollercoaster of fertility. Myriam Steinberg has turned her journey of heartbreak and healing into something wonderfully alive.
—Elan Mastai, writer/producer of This Is Us and author of All Our Wrong Todays

This book is a true gift to anyone on a journey to parenthood through IVF/IUI. It is an experience most can't truly grasp unless they've been through it themselves, but seeing it through Myriam's eyes gives us a beautiful and raw glimpse of the reality of the ups and downs and relentless grief that rings true for so many. It will speak to so many still trying and in the midst of this painful journey. Myriam shows how much support we need along the way and how it's healthy to feel frustration, jealousy and hope all at once. Catalogue Baby helps normalize the conversation around infertility and the stigma attached to this topic.
—Chiemi Rajamahendran, Founder, Miss.Conception Coach

“Catalogue Baby is intimate, devastating, surprisingly funny, and utterly original. Page after page, I marvelled at Myriam Steinberg's no-holds-barred look at how infertility turns lives upside down, beautifully matched by illustrator Christache's gift for capturing emotions too raw for words. You don't need to be in baby-making mode to be moved by Steinberg's heart-breaking road to motherhood. But this book, above all, is a celebration of biology, and the enduring love of family and friends. Bravo.”
—Adriana Barton, journalist and author



From Art Spiegelman’s Maus to Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire’s Secret Path, the graphic novel has been proven time and again to be a powerful artform for relating difficult, sometimes harrowing, stories. But even given the genre’s rich history, there is something utterly new about ... Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of (In)fertility.... At once a personal account of one woman’s five-year struggle to become a single mother by choice and a bold confrontation of the taboos surrounding female infertility…. All the while, the book weaves in moments of levity and humour, and is threaded throughout with gratitude for the healing power of friendship, family, and community…. It’s raw stuff, but anyone who has experienced the grief of losing a wanted pregnancy or supported someone through the experience will recognize something of their own story in Steinberg’s—which is precisely the point.
—Stir

Steinberg’s refreshing openness on a topic that is often spoken about in whispers, if at all, is most welcome. And her voice is amplified by the colour-bursting, energetic and imaginative illustrations by Christache Ross, which take readers right close up into the physical and emotional upheaval and turmoil that Steinberg has lived.
—Jewish Independent

The subjects of Catalogue Baby—infertility, miscarriage, donor conception—are all taboo, and it’s wonderful to see these topics being brought out into the open in this format. Myriam’s honest words, together with the emotionally raw graphics, will undoubtedly get the message across as to just how hard the journey to parenthood is for some people. Catalogue Baby is a real labour of love..
—Sheila Lamb, Author of the This is... fertility series of books including True tales of infertility, IVF and pregnancy loss; and My Fertility Book—all the fertility and infertility explanations you will ever need, from A to Z

With directness and ample doses of humor and gratitude, Steinberg’s graphic debut charts her four-year effort to become a mother.... For all her heart-wrenching experiences, Steinberg never loses sight of her privilege, and presents community as an antidote to silence and grief (eventually giving birth to healthy twins helps, too). Christache’s sprightly illustrations enliven the technical medical details with chatty sperm and eggs. Steinberg’s solo-mother-by-choice perspective and accessible, well-paced graphic storytelling brings a fresh angle to the pregnancy memoir canon..
—Publishers Weekly

Powerful…. Not only is the book a deep dive into the emotional chaos that comes with trying to conceive when it isn’t a simple process, it is also full of illuminating slices of humour…. Graphic novels are well known for tackling a wide-range of topics and presenting them in ways that convey the subject’s emotional experience in image and script. Catalogue Baby certainly succeeds, with frame after frame putting Steinberg’s life on the page. Christache’s capturing of the experiences...is perfect.
—Vancouver Sun

From the Publisher