Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Pantheon Books, 2003)
Being the daughter of well-to-do, liberal parents and the great-granddaughter of an Iranian emperor made young Marjane's life in Tehran enviable until 1979. As she recounts in this memoir, the family had a maid, a Cadillac, and a penchant for activism; sent their daughter to a co-ed French school; and allowed her to wear Western clothes. Then the Iranian Revolution began, the shah departed, and Islamic fundamentalists took over.
Under the strict new religious leaders, Marjane writes, her school was closed, she had to wear a veil, and relatives were harassed and imprisoned for their political views, but the family still strived for normalcy. When war with Iraq broke out in 1980 and bombs starting falling on neighborhoods, the now-teenaged author was sent to Austria by her protective parents.
Years of trying to convince European friends that she grew up much like they did culminated in this book. A graphic novel--sometimes humorous, sometimes somber--it tells her life story from ages six to 14, stressing the common aspects of that experience, in language as direct as her bold black-and-white sequential drawings.
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Pantheon Books, 2004)
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return picks up where author/illustrator Marjane Satrapi left off in her first illustrated autobiography, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.
Having lived on her own in Europe for a while, Marjane had the opportunity to taste both the positive and negative aspects of freedom from the religious police of Iran. After a series of hardships including being homeless in Vienna for three months, Marjane returns to her home and family in Tehran, Iran, a changed woman.
Marjane's experiences in Austria and the influence of her somewhat rebellious grandmother bring her back under the veil with a contemptuous tolerance.
Courtesy of Books & Authors