Colonial history haunts this stunning, spectral-looking graphic novel, a spiritual sequel to the author’s Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures.
In Misery of Love, a spiritual sequel to the acclaimed Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures, Yvan Alagbé continues his unflinching interrogation of race and family in modern France.
The book focuses on the dream-like memories of a woman named Clare, who is reluctantly spending time with her relatives for a funeral. Alagbé seamlessly glides between narratives of the family’s past and present, all haunted by the legacy of France’s colonial subjugation of Africa.
Alagbé works in stormy grayscale washes, using comics, as he puts it, as “a sacred dimension which celebrates, questions and perpetuates life.... I believe that life is not damnation but grace.”
Told through time shifts that echo Richard McGuire’s Here, Misery of Love is another ambitious, devastating masterpiece from one of France’s best contemporary graphic novelists.
Yvan Alagbé was born in Paris and spent three years of his youth in West Africa. He is a cofounder of the publishing house Amok, which later merged with the Belgian publishing group Fréon to become Frémok, now a major European graphic novels publisher. He is the author of Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures. He teaches at Haute école des arts du Rhin in Strasbourg.
Donald Nicholson-Smith is a translator of French literature. He has translated works by writers such as Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre, and Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as the noir fiction of Jean-Patrick Manchette and Thierry Jonquet. He is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Born in Manchester, England, he lives in New York City.
"Alagbé has set himself an impossibly high technical bar and then vaulted over it: Each page is two ink-wash panels, the majority of them without text, but somehow the characters emerge from his shades of gray with astonishing vibrancy. . . . Misery of Love is a sad, unusual, astounding story, built so solidly that its intricacies are invisible one minute and unavoidable the next." —Sam Thielman, The New York Times
“Alagbé shrouds his murky ink wash art in purposeful obscurity, with spectral human forms blurring into near-abstract compositions, like Gerhard Richter photo-paintings by way of Hugo Pratt. In haunted ellipses, Alagbé conjures an almost tactile sense of disquiet that isn’t easily shaken. It’s a stunning graphic novel counterpart to the obsessive fever dreams of Marguerite Duras and Claire Denis.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Misery of Love unfurls into a story about French colonialism, doomed romance and the long-lasting impacts of familial abuse, one so adroitly conveyed that its many interconnected climaxes converge to create one of the most affecting reading experiences I’ve had for many years.” —Séamas O’Reilly, Irish Times
Colonial history haunts this stunning, spectral-looking graphic novel, a spiritual sequel to the author’s Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures.
In Misery of Love, a spiritual sequel to the acclaimed Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures, Yvan Alagbé continues his unflinching interrogation of race and family in modern France.
The book focuses on the dream-like memories of a woman named Clare, who is reluctantly spending time with her relatives for a funeral. Alagbé seamlessly glides between narratives of the family’s past and present, all haunted by the legacy of France’s colonial subjugation of Africa.
Alagbé works in stormy grayscale washes, using comics, as he puts it, as “a sacred dimension which celebrates, questions and perpetuates life.... I believe that life is not damnation but grace.”
Told through time shifts that echo Richard McGuire’s Here, Misery of Love is another ambitious, devastating masterpiece from one of France’s best contemporary graphic novelists.
Creators
Yvan Alagbé was born in Paris and spent three years of his youth in West Africa. He is a cofounder of the publishing house Amok, which later merged with the Belgian publishing group Fréon to become Frémok, now a major European graphic novels publisher. He is the author of Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures. He teaches at Haute école des arts du Rhin in Strasbourg.
Donald Nicholson-Smith is a translator of French literature. He has translated works by writers such as Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre, and Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as the noir fiction of Jean-Patrick Manchette and Thierry Jonquet. He is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Born in Manchester, England, he lives in New York City.
"Alagbé has set himself an impossibly high technical bar and then vaulted over it: Each page is two ink-wash panels, the majority of them without text, but somehow the characters emerge from his shades of gray with astonishing vibrancy. . . . Misery of Love is a sad, unusual, astounding story, built so solidly that its intricacies are invisible one minute and unavoidable the next." —Sam Thielman, The New York Times
“Alagbé shrouds his murky ink wash art in purposeful obscurity, with spectral human forms blurring into near-abstract compositions, like Gerhard Richter photo-paintings by way of Hugo Pratt. In haunted ellipses, Alagbé conjures an almost tactile sense of disquiet that isn’t easily shaken. It’s a stunning graphic novel counterpart to the obsessive fever dreams of Marguerite Duras and Claire Denis.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Misery of Love unfurls into a story about French colonialism, doomed romance and the long-lasting impacts of familial abuse, one so adroitly conveyed that its many interconnected climaxes converge to create one of the most affecting reading experiences I’ve had for many years.” —Séamas O’Reilly, Irish Times
