Still Life with Remorse

From the critically acclaimed artist, designer, and author of the bestsellers The Principles of Uncertainty, My Favorite Things, and Women Holding Things comes a moving work of visual storytelling, a meditation in words and pictures on remorse, joy, ancestry, and memory.

Maira Kalman’s most autobiographical and intimate work to date, Still Life with Remorse is a beautiful, four-color collection and illustrated memoir combining deeply personal stories and 50 striking full-color paintings in the vein of her and Alex Kalman’s acclaimed Women Holding Things.

Tracing her family’s story from her grandfather’s birth in Belarus and emigration to Tel Aviv—where she was born—Maira considers her unique family history, illuminating the complex relationship between recollection, regret, happiness, and heritage. The vibrant original art accompanying these autobiographical pieces are mostly still lifes and interiors which serve as counterpoints to her powerful words. In addition to personal essays exploring her Israeli and Jewish roots, Kalman includes short stories about other great artists, writers, and composers, including Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Gustav Mahler, and Robert Schumann.

Through these narratives, Kalman uses her signature wit and tenderness to reveal how family history plays an influential role in all of our work, lives, and perspectives. A feat of visual storytelling and vulnerability, Still Life with Remorse explores the profound hidden in the quotidian, and illuminates the powerful universal truths about art and memory in our most personal family stories.

Part family history, part artist’s journal, this collection is a meditation on the fragments that make a life.

• Family History: Follow the author’s story from her family’s roots in Belarus to her own birth in Tel Aviv, tracing a line through generations of love and loss.
• Creative Nonfiction: Discover surprising and intimate short stories about historical figures like Tolstoy, Kafka, and Mahler, woven into Kalman’s own narrative.
• Still Life as Memoir: See how dozens of vibrant, full-color paintings of interiors and objects serve as poignant counterpoints to the deeply personal text.
• Jewish Roots: Explore the complexities of Jewish identity, culture, and heritage through the author’s signature wit, tenderness, and unflinching honesty.