Persepolis

"Persepolis" is the first graphic novel by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi. It is an autobiographical story about her coming of age. The dramatic history of Iran - the Shah's regime, the Islamic Revolution, the war with Iraq - is shown... through the eyes of a child. In an effort to provide a worthy secular education for their freedom-loving daughter, her parents are forced to send her abroad at the age of 14 to an Austrian lyceum. The alluring West, seen from afar, shows its mundane face and shocks the protagonist with the fragility of human connections. Having experienced love and betrayal, friendship and rejection, and almost hitting rock bottom, Marjane is forced to return home. But much has changed in her homeland. The tightening regime of the Islamic Republic has seriously restricted personal and public freedoms. A few years later, Marjane leaves the country again, this time to France, where she will live permanently.
.Published in 4 volumes (2000-2003) in France, "Persepolis" has received numerous accolades at professional forums (from the Angoulême International Comics Festival to the Frankfurt Book Fair) and gained recognition among the general public on both sides of the Atlantic. The culmination of the novel's career was its adaptation into a feature-length animated film in 2007, which received a special jury prize in Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar.