Berlin (Book 1): City of Stones by Jason Lutes
An intimate fictional portrait of Berlin and its citizens in 1928, told in gorgeous words and pictures.
The first book in an ongoing three-volume series, Berlin: City of
Stones is a brilliant, loving portrait of the city and its
people at the end of the Weimar Republic, just as the Nazi party is
rising to power. Readers will immediately draw comparisons between
Berlin and Maus, Art
Spiegelman’s groundbreaking graphic chronicle of World War II. Where
Maus is
a memoir concerned with family history and the legacy of terror, Berlin is
content to exist in a single moment in history, 1928, digging deep into
historical detail. Lutes casually weaves his story around the lives of
two people: Marthe Muller, a young art student new to the city, and
Kurt Severing, a jaded and weary journalist. Berlin is less concerned
with the individuals he follows than with their interactions and the
web of humanity that they create. It is impossible to write a story of
the Weimar Republic without discussing politics, and Lutes does a fine
job of putting a human face on the rivalries of disparate political
factions without ever seeming heavy-handed. His art is impeccable:
spare line drawings that offer just enough detail to set the reader’s
imagination on fire. Berlin: City of
Stones is followed by the equally enchanting Berlin: City of
Smoke in 2008. The third and final installment, though eagerly
anticipated, has not yet been released.
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Recommended by Sara D.
