This is one of those modern classics I’d been meaning to read but never got round to until the news of the author’s untimely death this year shook me from my lethergy. I ordered a copy of her memoir (written as a comic book) of a childhood witnessing the Iranian revolution and her escape to Europe at the tender age of 14. Moving and sad, but also revealing of humanity’s better side. In the same league as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Mizuki Shigeru’s Showa graphic novels.
No. 12 of 24 books I intend to read and review in 2026.
I’m Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at my conversation school in Abiko, Japan, I write and illustrate textbooks for non-native speakers of English, release Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, paint, and write essays and Our Man in Abiko, a monthly newsletter highlighting good writing in English, often about about Japan, art, crime fiction and teaching.
