Title: Persepolis: The Story of a Return

Author: Marjane Satrapi

Publisher: Pantheon 2004

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 188

Rating:  5 /5 stars

Reading Challenges: Graphic Novel; My Years -- 2004

How I Got It: Library loan

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day,” Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

I thought that the last volume pulled at my heart.  This one tops it.  I was right there with Marjane as she struggled to find herself alone in a foreign city.  Every time she she faced another setback, my heart broke just a little bit.  Once she was back in Iran, things didn't automatically get better.  While I've never felt completely out of place, I empathize with her journey.  The two volumes create a beautiful picture an Iranian woman's life through tumultuous times.  A must read.