Vidal

Part Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, and Art Spiegelman's Maus, Danila Botha's powerful debut graphic novel, follows young Vidal who grows up in Tiberias (Ottoman Empire and then British Mandate Palestine) and moves to Paris to pursue his art and freedom and gets trapped there during World War II. Botha traces the steps of Vidal's life through Chagallian vignettes, from his Sephardic upbringing in Tiberias to studies in the Technion in Haifa, his artistic life in Paris, his work with the underground resistance, and his ultimate arrest and time in Auschwitz. Poignantly capturing the Sephardic Jewish experience, and like Vidal and his family, the author's family were fifth-generation Moroccan Jews who grew up speaking both Hebrew and Arabic and coexisting with their neighbours and friends. A rich artistic and cultural experience, Vidal brings to light the untold stories of family, hope, freedom, and what their pursuit can cost. Vidal reminds us all that it's possible for things to be different. AUTHOR: Danila Botha is the critically acclaimed author of the short story collections Got No Secrets and the Trillium Book Award, Vine Awards, and ReLit Awards finalist For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I've Known. Her new collection, Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness, was published by Guernica Editions in April 2024. Stories from it have appeared in Canadian, American, and European literary journals, from the Antigonish Review and Grain Magazine to Flights Magazine, Bristol Noir, and the Berlin Review. Vidal is her debut graphic novel. She lives in Toronto.