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Return to Eden

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Brief Description
New York Public Library Best Comics for Adults 2024 It all starts with a photograph: an ordinary scene of a young woman and her family picnicking at a Valencian beach in 1947. Now in her twilight years, Antonia cherishes this photo dearly; it holds the memories... Read More
Format: Hardback
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The celebrated Spanish cartoonist's most ambitious work yet is a touching homage to his mother and a bittersweet depiction of life in post-war Spain.

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New York Public Library Best Comics for Adults 2024

It all starts with a photograph: an ordinary scene of a young woman and her family picnicking at a Valencian beach in 1947. Now in her twilight years, Antonia cherishes this photo dearly; it holds the memories of her upbringing, her family—the key to her Eden.

Taking off from this routine family outing, cartoonist Paco Roca paints a heartfelt portrait of his mother's formative years. This delicate portrayal of a humble family is at once an intimate biographical story and a broader reflection of the hardscrabble existence many faced in post-war Spain. Antonia and her family soldier through constant hunger, the shady dealings of the black market, traumas of war and parental abuse, and the oppressive atmosphere wrought by the Catholic church and Franco's authoritarian regime—and yet, they find oases of joy and wonder in cinema, imagination, and small acts of kindness.

Roca is known the world over for his quietly powerful graphic novels, from Twists of Fate to The House, and this latest masterwork may just be his magnum opus. In Return to Eden, Roca manages to charge quotidian life with rare poignancy, in all its daily struggles and daydreams, and readers will come away deeply affected.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781683969310

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 27 February 2024

Country: United States

Imprint: Fantagraphics

Illustration: 176 Illustrations

Contributors:

  • Translated by Andrea Rosenberg
  • Translated by Andrea Rosenberg

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 246.0mm

Height: 177.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 176

About the Author

Paco Roca is an acclaimed Spanish comics artist whose translated works with Fantagraphics include The Treasure of the Black Swan (2022), Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas (2023), and Return to Eden (2024). Andrea Rosenberg is a translator who has worked on a variety of novels and graphic narratives in Spanish and Portuguese. Her translations of the graphic novels Run For It by Marcelo D'Salete and The House by Paco Roca won Eisner Awards in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Also by Paco Roca

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  • Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas
    At 40, cartoonist Paco Roca has finally achieved his childhood dream — to spend all day at home in his pyjamas! However, his blissful, loungewear-clad reverie is beset with a host of mundane problems: He dreads small talk with "the world's biggest bore," but his excuses and white lies are finally catching up with him. When good friends break up,...
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  • The Treasure of the Black Swan
    A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection May 2007. When an American treasure-hunting company uncovers a shipwreck containing the greatest underwater trove ever found, the world is captivated by their discovery. But over in Spain, a group of low-level government officials surmise that the sunken ship is, in fact, an ancient Spanish vessel. Thus begins a legal and political thriller,...
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  • The Winter of the Cartoonist
    In 1957, Editorial Bruguera was one of Spain's largest publishing houses, putting out hugely popular weekly magazines and comics for young and old — while retaining all rights and creative control of their artists' work. Spanish comics superstar Paco Roca investigates the true story of five cartoonists who, spurred by poor working conditions, arbitrary editorial edicts, and nationwide dictatorial rule,...
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