Persepolis, Vol. 2 By Marjane Satrapi

A memoir of coming of age in revolutionary Iran, Persepolis takes an unparalleled look into a way of life that is almost unknown and hard to access. Satrapi has chosen to tell her remarkable story in a wonderful, unique and indispensable comic book. It leaves you with a strange sensation, as if you were reading a message sent in a bottle by a shipwrecked person.

In this volume, the conflict between Iraq and Iran, her years at high school in Vienna, her return to Iran and her final departure for France follow, retold through the prism of her own experience, all episodes forming, put together, a bildungsroman. The veil that usually covers sensitive issues related to politics, religion and history is lifted in the book of the author based in France to make room for many shades of gray camouflaged in exclusively black and white images.