Persepolis: The Story of an Iranian Childhood (Persepolis) (Hardback) By (author) Marjane Satrapi

Full bibliographic data for Persepolis

Title

Persepolis

Subtitle

The Story of an Iranian Childhood

Authors and contributors

By (author) Marjane Satrapi

Physical properties

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 160
Width: 161 mm
Height: 236 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight: 371 g

Audience

General/trade

Language

English

ISBN

ISBN 13: 9780224064408
ISBN 10: 0224064401

Classifications

BISAC category code: CGN000000
Dewey: B
BISAC category code: BIO000000
BIC geographical qualifier: 1FBN
BIC time period qualifier: 3JJPL
BIC time period qualifier: 3JJPN
Dewey: 955.054092
LC classification: DS318.84
Nielsen BookScan Product Class: T4.2A
BISAC category code: HIS026000
BICMainSubject: BGA

Publisher

VINTAGE

Imprint name

Jonathan Cape Ltd

Publication date

22 May 2003

Publication City/Country

London/GB

Biographical note

Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the French school, before leaving for Vienna and then Strasbourg to study illustration. She has written several children's books and her commentary and illustrations appear in newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New Yorker and the New York Times. She is the author of the internationally bestselling and award-winning comic book autobiography in two parts, Persepolis and Persepolis 2. She currently lives in Paris.

Review text

This striking graphic novel, reminiscent of Art Spiegelman's Maus, tells the story of the author's childhood with wit and insight. Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran in 1970 and grew up in a time of great upheaval for her country. Reza Shah, the father of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had attempted to Westernise and modernise the country, beginning with the change of name from Persia to Iran in 1935. With the discovery of vast oil resources, Iran became not only very rich but also the object of considerable attention by the Western powers. When Reza Shah declared Iran a neutral zone at the beginning of the Second World War, the Allies invaded and Reza Shah was sent onto exile, and it was not until 1953 that his son, known simply as the Shah, returned to stay on the throne until 1979 when he fled the revolution. Marjane Satrapi was deeply aware of what was happening to her country as she grew up. She was suddenly forced to wear the veil and to be separated from her former friends at a French-run non-religious school who were considered decadent. Her parents were radical Marxists who were constantly in the forefront of the political turmoil that was tearing the country apart, and Marjane's home life was ordered by what was happening on the streets. Ordinary daily life ran alongside seismic changes to her country and its culture. The comic-strip format adds a huge poignancy to her child's eye view of growing up in a rigidly controlled society, a life that was alternately comic and hugely tragic. (Kirkus UK)

Main description

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.

Promotional headline

Another astonishing work of graphic non-fiction: the story of a girl growing up in Iran during the Revolution.

Review quote

"This touching, funny, illuminating memoir deserves a much wider audience." -- Kate Figes Guardian "The magic of Marjane Satrapi's work is that it can condense a whole country's tragedy into one poignant, funny scene after another." -- Natasha Walter Independent on Sunday "Persepolis is a stylish, clever and moving weapon of mass destruction." -- David Jenkins Sunday Telegraph "Marjane Satrapi's books are a revelation. They're funny, they're sad, they're hugely readable. Most importantly, they remind you that the media sometimes tell you the facts but rarely tell you the truth. In one afternoon Persepolis will teach you more about Iran, about being an outsider, about being human, than you could learn from a thousand hours of television documentaries and newspaper articles. And you will remember it for a very long time." -- Mark Haddon "I cannot praise enough Marjane Satrapi's moving account of growing up as a spirited young girl in revolutionary and war-time Iran. Persepolis is disarming and often humorous but ultimately it is shattering." -- Joe Sacco