48 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ NOVEMBER 4, 2019
Review_FICTION
sinister mood. Disappearing doors, murder
attempts, and unexpected romance all
lead Pierre to his inevitable destiny with
the mountain. This is a stylish, atmo-
spheric book whose deliberate pacing
deliciously builds tension and mystery.
(Nov.)Amazons, Abolitionists, and
Activists: A Graphic History of
Women’s Fight for Their Rights
Mikki Kendall and A. D’Amico. Ten Speed,
$19.99 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-0-399-
58179-3
The fight for women’s rights perseveres
through incremental progress, frustrating
setbacks, and persistence in this wide-
ranging history, with glorious gains cele-
brated along the way. Organized somewhat
clunkily as a field trip through time
(beginning in 4500 BCE and continuing
to present day)
led by an ador-
able, purple-
skinned artificial
intelligence,
writer Kendall
and artist
D’Amico
explore women’s
courageous
activities and
activism, such
as those of the shield-maidens of the
Viking Age, or Josephine Baker’s espionage
work on behalf of the French Resistance
during WWII. The earliest chapters
suffer from confusing panel layouts and
stiff illustration, but this awkwardness
gives way to lavish depictions of the
fight for suffrage and the Harlem
Renaissance. Kendall and D’Amico
manage the challenge of inclusivity with
aplomb. Lesser-known black activists,
disability rights advocates, and Native
American leaders are portrayed with the
same fulsome treatment as household
names such as Susan B. Anthony, all
with an accessible tone and striking
portraiture. Perhaps the largest omission
is that of a bibliography—those looking
to explore the sources relied upon are left
without citations. Still, what is accom-
plished in these lively, jewel-toned pages
speaks for itself. Agent: Charlie Olsen,
Inkwell. (Nov.)psychopath running Little Rock’s seamy
criminal underbelly. The standard buddy
cop narrative is given fresh weight by
Bailey’s delusional mania (“I am the
cleansing flame”). Told in parallel is the
tortured family history of African-
American brothers Jacob and Esau, who
are operating on either side of the law,
and yet must both face the biblical fury
and collateral damage of Bailey’s vendetta.
Jensen further tangles the narrative with
vividly depicted historical detailing,
such as the militia-like black police
force that operated in tandem with the
white police. The noirish, harshly shad-
owed art from Powell recalls his work on
March, with a brutal dusting of Frank
Miller. The Southern gothic atmosphere
and sedimentary layers of guilty consciences
read like one of the (better) seasons of True
Detective. This lurid, violence-spattered
crime graphic novel might be made up,
but the questions it raises are a real gut
punch. Final color pages not seen by PW.
Agent: Charlie Olsen, Inkwell (Nov.)Swimming in Darkness
Lucas Harari, trans. from the French by David
Homel. Arsenal Pulp, $24.95 (152p) ISBN 978-
1-551-52767-3
Harari melds academia, obsession,
and mysticism in this eerie graphic
novel about a young man traveling
through a mysterious network of moun-
tainside baths. Pierre, a French grad
student who dropped out of school after a
mental breakdown, decides to confront
the object of his obsessive thesis: the
Vals Thermal Baths in Switzerland.
Along the way, he learns there’s a legend
that “every hundred years, the mountain
chooses a foreigner, lures him into its
mouth, and swallows him up.” Pierre
encounters a rival who will stop at
nothing to gain the bath’s secrets, a
woman also fascinated by their maze, and
an eccentric hermit who tells him the
legend is true.
Harari works in
a clear line with
a sickly pastel
palette, and his
attention to
architectural
detail is crucial
in establishing
the strange,political unrest and his own mental health
struggles, Warner’s intricate graphic
memoir of his months spent in Beirut as a
college student in 2005 resists simplistic
clichés. When he arrives, Lebanon is still
partially occupied following a 15-year
civil war, but is
flourishing in
the delicate
peace. Warner,
who warns “I
come off like an
idiot,” is fresh
off a breakup
and befriends a
diverse posse of
mostly queer
expats. They dance, travel, do drugs, hook
up, and learn about Lebanese history.
After the assassination of former prime
minister Rafik Hariri, Lebanon’s old
demons surface, and Warner is plagued
by escalating paranoia and an abstract,
unnameable darkness. Lebanese “revolu-
tion” doesn’t lead directly to meaningful
change, and Warner doesn’t “fix” his
mind by quitting drugs or finding a
therapist, though he does begin to heal.
Warner’s artwork is tidy, detailed, and
expressive, and he proves a confident
illustrator of cityscapes, star-strewn can-
yons, and creepy hallucinations alike. If
the final quarter of the book feels a bit
meandering, it could be blamed on
realism: there’s no clean narrative for the
turmoil of a mind or country in unrest.
Warner’s work honors the richness of
Lebanon and the fragile, fleeting nature
of peace. Agent: Farley Chase; Farley Chase
Agency (Jan.)Two Dead
Van Jensen and Nate Powell. Gallery 13,
$19.99 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-5011-
6895-6
The plot rocketing this dramatic,
socially conscious crime story is fictional,
but its fuel is the true tales that Jensen
(Cryptocracy) dug up as a crime reporter.
The graphic novel starts in 1946 with
clean-cut but haunted war hero Gideon
joining the Little Rock, Ark., police
force. He’s tossed into a car with his
opposite: Chief Bailey, a cigar-puffing
volcano of an officer, whose mind is
unraveling. Together, the men knock the
legs out from under the sadistic Mafia