The Art of Flying

Description

At last in English, one of the great Spanish graphic novels of recent years When published in 2009, The Art of Flying was hailed as a landmark in the history of the graphic novel in Spain for its deeply touching synthesis of individual and collective memories. A deeply personal testament, Altarriba's account of what led his father to commit suicide at the age of ninety is a detective novel of sorts, one that traces his father's life from an impoverished childhood in Aragon, to service with Franco's army in the Civil war, escape to join the anarchist FAI, exile in France when the Republicans are defeated, to return to Spain in 1949 and the stultifying existence to which Republican sympathisers were consigned under Francoism. The Art of Flying is immensely moving and vivid, beautifully drawn by Kim. It was highly praised in Spain on first publication, where it was compared to Art Spiegelman's Maus. It went on to win six major prizes, including the 2010 National Comic Prize.

Antonio Altaribba (Author) Antonio Altarriba, who was born in 1952, is a Spanish essayist, novelist, critic and short story writer, who began working in comics in the 1980s. He is currently a lecturer in French literature at the Universidad del Pais Vasco. Kim (Illustrator) Kim is a comics artist, best known for his humorous strip Martinez the Fascist in the satirical weekly El Jueves.

A tour de force...brilliant beyond belief. -- Raymond Briggs I'm not sure why it has taken so long to appear in English, but its timing couldn't be better, for this is a book that reminds us that refugees once came from inside Europe as well as outside - and from the country in which many of us now sun ourselves every summer, to boot. It's chastening, then, as well as moving. -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *