shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Original Essays | November 5, 2009

John Buntin: IMG Notes from the (Bibliographic) Underground



For more than 60 years, Los Angeles's origins, its underbelly, and (yes) its blondes have fueled the imagination of writers and directors from... Continue »
  1. $18.20 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$19.95
New Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Beaverton Graphic Novels- Alternative
20 Local Warehouse Graphic Novels- Literary
5 Remote Warehouse Graphic Novels- Literary

Aya

by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie

Aya Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Ivory Coast, 1978. Family and friends gather at Aya's house every evening to watch the country's first television ad campaign promoting the fortifying effects of Solibra, "the strong man's beer." It's a golden time, and the nation, too — an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa — seems fueled by something wondrous.

Who's to know that the Ivorian miracle is nearing its end? In the sun-warmed streets of working-class Yopougon, aka Yop City, holidays are around the corner, the open-air bars and discos are starting to fill up, and trouble of a different kind is about to raise eyebrows. At night, an empty table in the market square under the stars is all the privacy young lovers can hope for, and what happens there is soon everybody's business.

Aya tells the story of its nineteen-year-old heroine, the studious and clear-sighted Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It's a breezy and wryly funny account of the desire for joy and freedom, and of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City. An unpretentious and gently humorous story of an Africa we rarely see-spirited, hopeful, and resilient — Aya won the 2006 award for Best First Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Clément Oubrerie's warm colors and energetic, playful lines connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet's vibrant writing.

Review:

"Abouet could have just wanted to tell a sweet, simple story of the Ivory Coast of her childhood as a counterpoint to the grim tide of catastrophic news, which is all most Westerners know of Africa. But in Aya, Abouet, along with Parisian artist Oubrerie, does quite a bit more than that, spinning a multifaceted romantic comedy that would satisfy even without any political agenda behind it. Set in 1970, Aya follows the travails of some teenage girls in the peaceful Abidjan working-class neighborhood of Yopougon (which they call 'Yop City, like something out of an American movie'), as they strive for love and the right boyfriend. Yop City, as detailed in Oubrerie's fluid and cartoonish black and white drawings, is a mellow place where disco rules the night and practically the worst thing these girls have to worry about is the disapproval of their parentsor in the case of the quiet title character, criticism from those who wish she were more boy-crazed and less focused on a career. It's a quick piece of work, but memorable in mood, capturing the country's brief flicker of postcolonial peaceful prosperity before descending into the modern maelstrom of corruption and violence we know only too well." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"A smart and sweetly comic glimpse of a time and place in Africa that get little attention in the West." Kirkus Reviews

Synopsis:

Nineteen-year-old Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors star in this breezy and wryly funny story of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yopougon, a.k.a. Yop City. Full color. Young adult.

About the Author

Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan in 1971 and now lives outside of Paris.

Product Details

ISBN:
9781894937900
Author:
Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
Publisher:
Drawn & Quarterly
Illustrator:
Oubrerie, Clement
Author:
Abouet, Marguerite
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
CGN006000
Subject:
Teenage girls
Subject:
Cote d'Ivoire
Publication Date:
February 2007
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
YES
Pages:
96
Dimensions:
9.74x6.80x.70 in. 1.14 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $9.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  2. $9.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  3. $14.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Curses

    Kevin Huizenga
  4. $9.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  5. $17.95 New Trade Paper add to wish list

    Deogratias, a Tale of Rwanda

    J. P. Stassen and Alexis Siegel
  6. $17.95 New Hardcover add to wish list

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.