Tongues, Volume 1
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
From the three-time Igantz award-winning artist and author of Big Questions comes a fascinating graphic novel retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus
"An extraordinary reinvention of some of our oldest stories. Nilsen brings these old gods to an electrifying new life, and gives us a new sense of humanity as well."—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“Mind-bendingly good. It’s up there with Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan.” —Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Set in a version of modern Central Asia, Tongues is a retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus. It follows the captive god’s friendship with the eagle who carries out his daily sentence of torture and chronicles his pursuit of revenge on the god that has imprisoned him.
Prometheus’s story is entwined with that of an East African orphan on an errand of murder, and a young man with a teddy bear strapped to his back, wandering aimlessly into catastrophe (a character readers may recognize from Nilsen’s Dogs and Water). The story is set against the backdrop of tensions between rival groups in an oil-rich wilderness.
Tongues is both an adventure story and a meditation on human nature in our present fraught, historical moment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ignatz winner Nilsen (Big Questions) brings an ambitious postcolonialist perspective to the myth of Prometheus, projecting ancient strife among deities into present-day conflict in Central Asia. The plot centers on Astrid, a 13-year-old East African girl dragging a suitcase across the desert with a monkey and a talking chicken in tow. Surviving on scavenged MREs (meals ready to eat), Astrid has been summoned by the goddess Seshat for a task of world-altering consequence. Meanwhile, Prometheus sits chained to his rock, gathering scraps of news on human progress from the eagle who arrives each day to devour his liver—their routine only broken by occasional games of chess. Though an adventure saga on its surface, the deliberately paced narrative makes space for philosophical ruminations on the origin of language and appraisals of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke's "Minnesang" choral lamentation. Nilsen's audacious page layouts match the narrative scope. Intricate scenes play out in honeycombs of hexagonal frames, or across panels arranged over anatomical diagrams of animals—a visual allusion to archaic haruspicy (divination through examination of animal entrails). Pages also fold out interstitially in the printed work, a puzzle design to match the artistry. With exhilarating imagination, Nilsen charges headlong at big themes of responsibility, fate, mortality, transcendence, and the natural order. The results are stunning.
