If your a fan of coming-of-age stories and heartwarming middle-grade reads, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis should be in your to-read list, but it is more than just a graphic novel, it’s a memoir of the author’s life.

“Persepolis” by John Niedermeyer is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Originally written in French, Persepolis is named after the very same city it takes place in (modern-day Iran), which roughly translates to “Persian city”. Yes. The memoir follows the childhood and upbringing of Satrapi amidst the beginning and zenith of the Iranian Revolution, or Islamic Revolution, which took place in the late ’70s, to overthrow the monarchy, and had long-lasting repercussions. The volumes of this story eventually amount up to Satrapi’s young-adulthood.

Picture a ten-year-old girl raised within a considerably privileged family, among intellectuals, activists; reading Marx and Descartes and Beauvoir; growing up with the promise of a just world. And as quickly a year later, all that she’s been taught and had deemed as normal is forbidden by a new government.

This is a story of repression, loosing loved ones to a heart-less regime, indoctrination, torture, battle; of living in exile, to be othered in refuge as well as in your own homeland. A life of constant turmoil through youthful eyes, and constant struggle for an authentic identity, split between two realities.

But I’ll leave the rest to this trailer below and the Goodreads link.

The adaptation’s trailer, winner of Cannes Jury Prize in 2007