The Property - Hardcover

Modan, Rutu

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770461159 ISBN 13: 9781770461154

Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly, 2013

Synopsis

INCLUDED ON MORE THAN TEN BEST OF THE YEAR LISTS, INCLUDING THE GUARDIAN, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, SALON, AMAZON, AND THE WASHINGTON POST!

"Modan delights in bringing the subtlest emotional shadings to vivid and often comical life on the page...[The Property is a] wryly funny and ultimately wrenching graphic novel." -NPR

The award-winning author of Exit Wounds returns with a story about secrets, money, and the bonds of love

The Property is a work that will inspire, fascinate, and delight readers and critics alike. Savvy and insightful, elegant and subtle, Rutu Modan's second full-length graphic novel is a triumph of storytelling and fine lines.

After the death of her son, Regina Segal takes her granddaughter Mica to Warsaw, hoping to reclaim a family property lost during the Second World War. As they get to know modern Warsaw, Regina is forced to recall difficult things about her past, and Mica begins to wonder if maybe their reasons for coming aren't a little different than what her grandmother led her to believe.

Modan offers up a world populated by prickly seniors, smart-alecky public servants, and stubborn women-a world whose realism is expressed alternately in the absurdity of people's behavior and in the complex consequences of their sacrifices. Modan's ever-present wit is articulated perfectly in her clear-line style, while a subtle, almost muted color palette complements the true-to-life nuances of her characterization. Exit Wounds made a huge splash for this signature combination of wit, style, and realism, and The Property will cement Modan's status as one of the foremost cartoonists working today.

About this title

About the Author

Rutu Modan is an Illustrator, comics artist, and associate professor at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem. After publishing several comic strips in the Israeli media, Modan co-founded the Actus Comics group. In 2008 her book Exit Wounds won the Eisner Award. Her 2013 graphic novel The Property won the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Novel, the Special Jury Prize in the International Comics Festival in Angouleme, France, and the first prize for best book of the year in Lucca Comics & Games Festival, Italy. Modan’s comics and children’s books have been translated into 15 languages. In 2013 she cofounded an independent publishing house specialising in comics for young children.

Reviews

TV producer Mica Segal accompanies her grandmother, Regina, on the old lady’s first return to Warsaw since she fled, pregnant by a gentile with Mica’s late father, to Palestine in 1939. On the plane, the son of a friend of Regina’s ebulliently accosts the women and thereafter seems to show up wherever they go, even separately. Mica shakes him by dodging into a café, where she meets a charming Pole who leads Jewish history tours. Not by chance, Regina comes on her own to the same café to meet an old man who lives in the building—yes, Mica’s grandfather. While the purpose of the trip is to assert Regina’s title to a building her parents had owned, what develops is an intrafamilial tiff, an ultimately fulfilling reunion, and the possible start of a romance. Modan’s dialogue is smart and nuanced to match a drawing style awfully reminiscent of Hergé’s Tintin and up to the most complimentary comparison with it. Nicely varied panel size and earth-tone coloration further distinguish this gratifying work of comics realism. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770461159
• ISBN 13: 9781770461154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 232