Product Description

Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, "Persepolis" 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16316 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it follows the young Satrapi, the six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witness first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school.

The main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story shows how young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout she remains a hugely likeable young woman.

Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told. --Robert Burrow

FT
'Tobias Grey interviews Marjane Satrapi about the film adaptation
of Persepolis'

Philip Pullman
‘A superb piece of work… I wish it and its very talented author a great success.’

Customer Reviews

A heartwarming read
Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi's life but as she has repeatedly said in different interviews it is not her biography. In other words what goes on in the book is not what exactly happened to her.

The story begins by describing the revolutionary environment of her childhood and the sudden and radical social changes that took place around that time. Some of the accounts are exaggerated and many are closer to urban legends than truth, although, it is understandable that, as a child, even milder versions of what happened could have had the same traumatising effects on a child that the reader gets from the first few chapters.
As an Iranian I identified myself much more with the events that followed her departure to Europe. Satrapi depicts the rebellious character of hers brilliantly. She runs away from the accepted norms of the society in Europe as she does with the new social codes forming in Iran. On the other hand she lacks confidence in expressing her self and faces an identity crisis which leaves her feeling "as a westerner in Iran and as an Iranian in the west". After her return to Iran and the end of the war she faces yet more new realities. Again the depiction of the modern/westernised looking society that remains ultra conservative underneath the surface is excellent.

Overall I think the book is very successful in showing the realities associated with a certain forgotten class of society in Iran but is unnecessarily exaggerating the behaviour of the new government. This I believe is the direct result of her not being engaged with the lower social classes which form the majority of the population of Iran.

Illustrated Revolution
Marjane Satrapi was ten-years-old when the Islamic revolution took away her freedom and rights, thrusting Iran back into the Dark Ages. Through simple but elegant illustrations, Satrapi tells the story of her childhood in Tehran during this time in her country's history. She shows the horrors and deprivations caused by the rise of religious extremists, as well as the bitter humour and courage that each ordinary citizen found to survive such a period.

The amazing thing about this graphic novel is how Satrapi can convey and stir emotions through illustrations. The themes she explores are universal - families torn apart, innocents persecuted, evil gaining power - but she makes them all the more powerful by injecting her young self's punk humour into the storytelling and making the reader care for her and her family. There's a sequel, which I can't wait to read, as well as a film, which is being touted as 2008's winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

With Iran so often villified in the media, it's good to be reminded that the people in that country are just like you and I: not necessarily the choosers of their regime; and certainly not deserving of any bombs coming their way.

Wonderful!
I loved this book ... it's very clever and very funny - really humanises life in an opressive regime in a way that news reports simply cannot. Satrapi's humour is perfectly done (I loved Marji's picture book of dialetical materialism), but there are moments of real horror here too. There were several points that made me cry.

The little girl in the story is a wonderful character and the black-and-white drawings show so much of her vibrancy. Hightly recommended.