Utopia comes with a price in this European cartoonist's graphic novel debut inspired by his mid-century colonialist grandfather.In 1947, the author’s grandfather, Arsene Schrauwen, traveled across the ocean to a mysterious, dangerous jungle colony at the behest of his cousin. Together they would build something deemed impossible: a modern utopia in the wilderness — but not before Arsene falls in love with his cousin’s wife, Marieke. Whether delirious from love or a fever-inducing jungle virus, Arsene’s loosening grip on reality is mirrored by the graphic novel reader’s uncertainty of what is imagined or real by Arsene. This first full-length graphic novel from the critically-acclaimed Olivier Schrauwen is an engrossing, sometimes funny, slightly surreal and often beautiful narrative.Finalist, 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize – Graphic Novel/ComicsShortlist, Slate's 2014 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year
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Arsene Schrauwen
Utopia comes with a price in this European cartoonist's graphic novel debut inspired by his mid-century colonialist grandfather.In 1947, the author’s grandfather, Arsene Schrauwen, traveled across the ocean to a mysterious, dangerous jungle colony at the behest of his cousin. Together they would build something deemed impossible: a modern utopia in the wilderness — but not before Arsene falls in love with his cousin’s wife, Marieke. Whether delirious from love or a fever-inducing jungle virus, Arsene’s loosening grip on reality is mirrored by the graphic novel reader’s uncertainty of what is imagined or real by Arsene. This first full-length graphic novel from the critically-acclaimed Olivier Schrauwen is an engrossing, sometimes funny, slightly surreal and often beautiful narrative.Finalist, 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize – Graphic Novel/ComicsShortlist, Slate's 2014 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year
Utopia comes with a price in this European cartoonist's graphic novel debut inspired by his mid-century colonialist grandfather.In 1947, the author’s grandfather, Arsene Schrauwen, traveled across the ocean to a mysterious, dangerous jungle colony at the behest of his cousin. Together they would build something deemed impossible: a modern utopia in the wilderness — but not before Arsene falls in love with his cousin’s wife, Marieke. Whether delirious from love or a fever-inducing jungle virus, Arsene’s loosening grip on reality is mirrored by the graphic novel reader’s uncertainty of what is imagined or real by Arsene. This first full-length graphic novel from the critically-acclaimed Olivier Schrauwen is an engrossing, sometimes funny, slightly surreal and often beautiful narrative.Finalist, 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize – Graphic Novel/ComicsShortlist, Slate's 2014 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year
Olivier Schrauwen was born in Belgium in 1977 and studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, and comics at the Saint Luc in Brussels. He currently lives in Berlin.
