Comics & Graphic Novels General
Unknown, The
- Publisher
- Conundrum Press
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2020
- Category
- General, Contemporary Women, Literary
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781772620474
- Publish Date
- Jun 2020
- List Price
- $17.00
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Drawn with guileful clarity and bite, The Unknown is a story of deceit, self-deception and the search for happiness.
One day, Helen finds a newborn abandoned in a changing room in her boutique. She decides to keep it, nested in a cardboard box and hidden even from her husband.
Vicky and Wanda are boarding school roommates. Wanda talks Vicky into turning tricks. Meanwhile, Vicky can't keep her secrets from Wanda - not her affair with their history teacher, and not the pregnancy she tries to sabotage and yet stubbornly carries out.
As the two narratives converge, coincidences and secrets are revealed. Incisive, wicked and breezily unconcerned by taboos, Anna Sommer lets readers put together the pieces of her morally ambiguous fable.
About the authors
Anna Sommer is a comics artist and illustrator. Her debut graphic novel, Damen Dramen, published in 1996, established her name in the alternative comics scene. Etched, pen-and-ink and papercut works followed, all distinguished by Sommer's clear, flowing line and unsparing dark humour. Nominated for the 2018 Best Album award at Angoulême, The Unknown is her first book in English and marks her return to full-length comics after a ten-year hiatus. She lives in Zurich, Switzerland.
Helge Dascher has for 25 years translated texts with a dynamic relationship to images. A background in art history and literature has grounded her translation of over sixty graphic novels, many by artists who have broadened the medium's storytelling range. Her translations included acclaimed titles such as Julie Delporte's This Woman's Work (co-translated with Aleshia Jensen, Drawn and Quarterly, 2019), Sophie Bédard's Lonely Boys (co-translated with Robin Lang, Pow Pow Press, 2020) and Michel Rabagliati's "Paul" books (Drawn and Quarterly, Conundrum). She also translates exhibitions, digital stories, and films, most recently Theodor Ushev's The Physics of Sorrow (with Karen Houle, NFB, 2019). A Montrealer, she works from French and German to English.
