As usual, here you have a list of recommendations for your holidays. This year is about graphic novels!. It is only a selection but it includes a wide range of different historical moments and perspectives. Enjoy the reading!
Women
Persépolis, by Marjane Satrapi. Autobiography of a teenager in Teherán, during the difficult years of the Islamic Revolution.
Sally Heathcote, Suffragette, by Mary M. Talbot & Kate Charlesworth. As the growing hunger for change grows within a culture of rigid social mores and class barriers, Sally and thousands like her rise up to break the bonds of oppression at the risk of ostracization and violence.
Leonor, the Black legend, by Delalande, Mogavino & Gómez. Biography of the brave and powerful Leonor of Aquitania (1122-1204), who brokes the medieval stereotypes fom women and changed History.
Red Rosa, by Kate Evans. A graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg, a central figure in the early twentieth century socialist movement in Europe, shows how an independent, passionate woman stood fast for her beliefs.
I World War
¡F***ing War!, by Jacques Tardi. A classic graphic novel about life in the trenches.
Gravrilo Princip, by Henrik Rehr. The story of the man that change the 20th century.
The Harlem Hellfighters, by Max Brooks & Caanan White. It is a fictionalized account of the experiences of the African-American 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Hell-fighters" by German soldiers.
II World War
Berlin: City of Stones, by Jason Lutes. A good inter-war novel set in the later years of the Weimar Republic. It covers the lives of several people in Berlin in 1928-1929, with as a backdrop the rise of Nazism.
Normandy, a graphic novel of the D-Day, by Wayne Vansant.
Maus, by Art Spiegelman. The story of a survivor from the concentration camps.
Los surcos del azar, by Paco Roca. The Story of “La Nueve”, the international Regiment, mainly formed by Spanish Republicans, that first enter in Paris, on the 24th August 1944.
History of Spain
La balada del Norte, by Alfonso Zapico. The story of several characters Turing the difficult times of the II Republic and the rebellion in Asturias.
La guerra civil española, by José Pablo García & Paul Preston
El otro mar, by Alfonso Zapico. Biography of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, one of the explorers/conquerors of America, around the year 1500.
1212. Las Navas de Tolosa, by Jesús Cano de la Iglesia
Las Meninas, by Javier Olivares & Santiago García
Pablo Picasso, by Birmant & Oubrerie
El Cid, by Antonio Hernández Palacios
Post-War conflicts
CHE: a revolutionary life, by Jon Lee Anderson & José Hernández
Pyongyang, by Guy Deslise. The author had the opportunity of visiting North Korea. Altough controlled and chaperoned by his translator and a guide, among the statues and propaganda of Korean leaders (the world's only Communist dynasty), Delisle was able to observe more than was intended of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered.
A Chinese Life, by Philippe Otie & Li Kunwu. The creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the rise and reign of Chairman Mao Zedong, and his sweeping, often cataclysmic vision for the most populated country on the planet.
Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War, by Ari Folman.
Best enemies, by Jean-Pierre Filiu & David B. A story of USA & Middle East relationships (1783-1953)
Such a lovely little war: Saigon 1961-1963, by Marcelino Truong. This Franco-Vietnamese author recounts his childhood in Saigon (now Ho Chi Mihn City). It is a gentle introduction to the beginning of the Vietnam War seen by a child of a bi-cultural marriage.
The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert & Didier Lefèvre. It recounts the journey of a reporter through Afghanistan while accompanying Doctors Without Borders in a country torn apart by a war pitting Russians against an Afghan resistance supported by the US and other countries.
Safe Area Gorazde, by Joe Sacco. The author, a master of graphic reportage, managed to convey the nuances of politics combined with a deep understanding of what Bosnians were going through in The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-95. Other main titles of Joe Sacco are Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, both about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Gaza strip.
Miscelánea
Democracy, by Alecos Papadatos, Abraham Kawa & Annii Donna. The story of how democracy started in Ancient Athens, from the perspective of one of its citizens.
Dubliner, by Alfonso Zapico. The tumultuous life of James Joyce, one of the most famous writers of the 20th century.
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, by Guy Delisle. Travelogue about life in the Holy City that serves as a cultural roadmap of the city's complexities and relevance while offering insight into the human impact of conflicts on both sides of the wall.
