Esther's Notebooks (Graphic Novel)

- Blurb -

The hilarious, heartbreaking, and painfully true life of a girl growing up in Paris, from the acclaimed comic book artist and author of The Arab of the Future "Funny, well-observed. . . contains immense daring and depth. . . Sattouf has drawn a portrait of a generation. " -Observer, "Graphic Novel of the Month" Every week, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf has a chat with his friend' s 10-year old daughter, Esther. She tells him about her life, her family, her school, her friends, her hopes, her dreams and her fears. And then he creates a one-page comic strip based on what she says. This book is a collection of 156 of those strips, comprising the first three volumes as they appeared in Europe, spanning Esther' s life from age 10 to 12. As The Guardian noted: "Each page of Esther' s Notebooks is self-contained-there' s usually a neat punchline-but read them all, and you come to see that Sattouf has drawn a portrait of a generation: their hopes, dreams and cultural references; the way that their personalities, backgrounds-many of the children portrayed have parents who are immigrants-and preconceived ideas about sexuality begin to play out even before they' ve begun secondary school. The result is a bit like a cartoon version of Michael Apted' s landmark TV series, Up. These funny, well-observed comics are fantastically daring. "