"Imposing and striking." Marianne
"A story full of suspense, superbly crafted." Le Monde
"A subtle fiction, where each character has his own story, and where everyone settles their accounts." France Inter
"A dazzling tragic comedy" Le Figaro
"A poignant graphic novel, which can be read as the metaphor of the general despair of an isolated nation." ActuaBD
"A punch comic" West France
"As is often the case in his books, Neyestani first and foremost dismantled a political-economic system that enslaves men (and even more women) and denounces the oppression, authoritarianism, patriarchy, the deadly hypocrisy of the elites." Young Africa
A gripping drama set in the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan
Iranian Kurdistan is located in northwestern Iran, alongside the Iraqi border. It’s a very poor area and an important hub of cigarettes, alcohol and clothes trafficking. Criminal organizations exploit the locals, forcing them to carry out smuggling operations between the two countries, carrying huge packages filled with goods through deadly paths, climbing to heights of more than 4,000 meters. Dozens of them die each year because of Iranian border guards, anti-personal mines and avalanches.
In Paper Birds, Jalal "The engineer" is recruited to take part in one of these expeditions. We follow the group of fearless men who undertake the dangerous journey. Drama ensues as the members of the expedition die one by one.
By setting up a suspense which grows throughout the book, Mana Neyestani depicts a dramatic situation, reflecting the daily life of people ready to do anything to feed their family and whose hopes and humanity are all they can cling to in order to survive.
17 x 24 cm, softcover
208 pages
full color
Mana Neyestani was born in Tehran in 1973. He graduated as an architect but began his career in 1990 as a cartoonist and illustrator for many cultural, literary, economic and political magazines. With the rise of Iranian reformist newspapers in 1999 he became an editorial cartoonist.
Sidelined as a political cartoonist, Neyestani was forced to do children’s cartoons. One he did in 2006 led to his imprisonment and flight from the country. From 2007 to 2010 he lived in exile in Malaysia, doing cartoons for dissident Iranian websites worldwide. In the wake of the fraudulent election of 2009, his work has become an icon of defiance to the Iranian people. Neyestani has won numerous Iranian and international awards, most recently the 2010 CRNI Award for Courage. Since 2011, he lives in Paris, France with his wife. They are both refugees.
