Price Comparison
- Our Best PriceBetter World Books$15.64Shop
- Amazon$24.99Shop
Description
With a preface by Will Eisner. Paracuellos is a work of great courage,created at a time when telling the truth about Spain's political past could getone killed. It is arguably the most important graphic memoir ever created incomics. Carlos Giménez's autobiographical account of theplight of children in post-World War II Fascist Spain has won virtually everycomics award in Europe, including "Best Album" at the 1981Angoulême Festival, and the "Heritage Award"at Angoulême in 2010. In the late 1930s when Spanish fascistsled by Franco, and aided by Hitler and Mussolini, overthrew the electedgovernment, almost 200,000 men and women fell in battle, were executed, or diedin prison. Their orphaned children-and others ripped from the homes of thedefeated-were shuttled from Church-run "home" to"home" and fed a steady diet of torture and disinformation by atotalitarian state bent on making them "productive" citizens. Carlos Giménez was one of those children. In 1975, afterFranco's death, Carlos began to tell his story. Breaking the code ofsilence proved to be a milestone, both for the comics medium and for a countrycoming to terms with its past. An illustrated essay by CarmenMoreno-Nuño, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University ofKentucky, places the comics in historical perspective. "The storiestranscend just being about a historical moment in Spain. Their humanity willspeak to everyone. The stories are heartbreakers, but Carlos never loses hissense of humor."-WilliamStout "Giménez' acute moralsensitivity, needle-sharp characterizations and knack for narrative make Paracuellos comparable to Maus and Persepolis . His artworkmay surpass them." -NPR Books
