Anna Paperback by Mia Oberländer

Product Details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics (2024-03-26)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 220 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781683969211
• Item Weight: 657.72 grams
• Dimensions: 24.13 x 16.13 x 2.41 cm

This debut graphic novel by an up-and-coming star of the German comics scene is an audacious allegory of female resistance and radical acceptance.

New York Public Library Best Comics for Adults 2024

In the sleepy German countryside live the Annas, cursed to be too tall for their small town. Laughably long-limbed and gangly, their bodies refuse to conform with societal norms of delicate femininity, and the trauma of being different ripples across generations. And yet, there may be a blessing to their burden; like the mighty mountains surrounding their town, they find that there is resilience and strength to be gained from their heightened perspective. Drawn with delightful exaggeration and formal inventiveness, Anna is a tongue-in-cheek, modern-day fairy tale about being “too big” for a narrow-minded world.

About the Author

Mia Oberländer (b. 1995, Ulm) is an illustrator and cartoonist based in Hamburg. She has co-organized the Hamburg Comicfestival since 2019 and teaches a storytelling seminar at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Arts and Design. Her work has been published in Le Monde diplomatique, Kiblind Magazine, Libération, and Strapazin, among others. Her debut graphic novel, Anna, was awarded the Berthold Leibinger Foundation’s Comic Book Award and the German Youth Literature Award for "New Talents," and has been translated into six languages.

Nika Beauchamp is a writer and translator of German literature living in St. Louis.