Wise often funny sometimes heartbreaking "Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood" tells the
story of Marjane Satrapi's life in Tehran from the ages of 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. The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists and the
great-grandaughter of Iran's last emperor Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely
entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily
life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Amidst
the tragedy Marjane's child's eye view adds immediacy and humour and her story of a childhood
at once outrageous and ordinary beset by the unthinkable and yet buffered by an extraordinary
and loving family is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful Satrapi's drawings have the
power of the very best woodcuts. Persepolis ends on a cliffhanger in 1984 just as
fourteen-year-old Marjane is leaving behind her home in Tehran escaping fundamentalism and the
war with Iraq to begin a new life in the West. In Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return we follow
our young intrepid heroine through the next eight years of her life: an eye-opening and
sometimes lonely four years of high school in Vienna followed by a supremely educational and
heartwrenching four years back home in Iran. Just as funny and heartbreaking as its predecessor
- with perhaps an even greater sense of the ridiculous inspired by life in a fundamentalist
state - Persepolis 2 is also as clear-eyed and searing in its condemnation of fundamentalism
and its cost to the human spirit. In its depiction of the universal trials of adolescent life
and growing into adulthood - here compounded by being an outsider both abroad and at home and
by living in a state where you have no right to show your hair wear make-up run in public
date or question authority - it's raw honest and incredibly illuminating.
