Aya of Yop City
Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie, Helge Dascher (trs.)
Aya of Yop City
For the residents of Yopougon, everyday life is good. It is the early 1970s, a golden time - work is plentiful, hospitals are clean and well equipped, and school is obligatory. The Ivory Coast is as an island of relative wealth and stability in West Africa. For the teenagers of the town, though, worries are plentiful, and life in Yop City is far from simple."Aya" tells the story of its nineteen-year-old heroine, the clear-sighted and bookish Aya, and her carefree and fun-loving friends Adjoua and Bintou. Navigating meddling relatives and neighbours, the girls spend a last summer of their childhood on the sun-warmed streets of Yop City - sneaking out for dancing at open-air bars, strong solibra beer, chicken in peanut sauce and avoiding at all costs the scandal pages of the "Calamity Morning"...
4.0 out of 5 based on 1 reviews
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Omniscore:
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Classification |
Fiction |
Genre |
Comics & Graphic Novels, Children's & Teenage |
Format |
Hardback |
Pages |
128 |
RRP |
£15.99 |
Date of Publication |
January 2009 |
ISBN |
978-0224087476 |
Publisher |
Jonathan Cape |
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For the residents of Yopougon, everyday life is good. It is the early 1970s, a golden time - work is plentiful, hospitals are clean and well equipped, and school is obligatory. The Ivory Coast is as an island of relative wealth and stability in West Africa. For the teenagers of the town, though, worries are plentiful, and life in Yop City is far from simple."Aya" tells the story of its nineteen-year-old heroine, the clear-sighted and bookish Aya, and her carefree and fun-loving friends Adjoua and Bintou. Navigating meddling relatives and neighbours, the girls spend a last summer of their childhood on the sun-warmed streets of Yop City - sneaking out for dancing at open-air bars, strong solibra beer, chicken in peanut sauce and avoiding at all costs the scandal pages of the "Calamity Morning"...
Reviews
The Daily Telegraph
Sameer Rahim
“The stories have an enjoyable air of nostalgia about them, enhanced by the dark browns and dusky pinks of the panels. Each character’s movements are nicely drawn: the man brushing his teeth and throwing on his clothes as he moves from one assignation to the next; Aya and Bintou walking nervously through a poorer district of town. But what really makes these books worth reading is their warmth and generosity.”
09/02/2009
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