This week host Marcela Sulak features a graphic novel for the first time ever on this podcast – Rutu Modan’s The Property, translated by Jessica Cohen.

It’s about an Israeli grandmother and her granddaughter getting to know Warsaw as they try to reclaim a family property lost during WWII.

Marcela, with the help of her crew, reads the book’s opening scene, set at Ben-Gurion airport, and a later scene in which Mica, the granddaughter, gets to show off her martial arts skills.

Rutu Modan was born in Tel Aviv in 1966, and graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Critics have called The Property “a triumph of storytelling and fine lines,” saying it “cements Modan’s status as one of the foremost cartoonists working today.”

Text:
The Property, translated by Jessica Cohen. Drawn and Quarterly, 2013.

Further Reading:
Exit Wounds, Drawn and Quarterly, 2007
Mixed Emotions, 2007, a visual blog at the New York Times
The Murder of the Terminal Patient, a graphic serial in the New York Times Magazine, 2008
Jamilti and Other Stories, Drawn and Quarterly, 2008
Where Is?, written by Tamar Bergman, Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books 2002 (children’s book)
Dad Runs Away With The Circus, written by Etgar Keret, Cambridge, MA, Candlewick Press, 2004 (children’s book)
Maya Makes a Mess, written and drawn by Rutu Modan, Toon Books, 2012

Music:
Nigel Kennedy & Kroke – Kazimierz
Walter Wanderley – Beach Samba
Kapela Harnasie – Lipka Zielona

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish