Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Marie Arendt
Categories
Graphic novel & Manga artwork

THIS COUNTRY

Navied Mahdavian

Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America

NPR BEST BOOKS OF 2023 ? NEW YORKER BEST BOOKS WE'VE READ IN 2023? A gorgeously illustrated and written debut graphic memoir about belonging, identity, and making a home in the remote American West, by New Yorker cartoonist Navied Mahdavian.

Before Navied Mahdavian moved with his wife and dog in November of 2016 from San Francisco to an off-the-grid cabin in rural Idaho, he had never fished, gardened, hiked, hunted, or lived in a snowy place. But there, he could own land, realize his dream of being an artist, and start a family. Over the next three years, Mahdavian leaned into the wonders of the natural Idaho landscape and found himself adjusting to and enjoying a slower pace of living. But beyond the boundaries of his six acres, he was confronted with the realities of America's political shifts and forced to confront the question: Do I belong here? Mahdavian's beautifully written and unflinchingly honest graphic memoir charts his growth and struggles as an artist, citizen, and new father. It celebrates his love of place and honors the relationships he makes in rural America, touching on dynamics like culture, environment, and identity in America, and even articulating difficult moments of racism and brutality he found there as a Middle Eastern American. With wit, compassion, and a sense of humor, Mahdavian's insider perspective offers a unique portrait of one of the most remote and wild areas of the American West.

Available products
Book Published 2023-09-12 by Chronicle Books

Comments

Why did urban, vegetarian, gun-wary Navied Mahdavian, of Iranian descent, have the big, bright idea to move with his wife to the frigid mountains of Idaho, months before Trump's inauguration? Riveting, searching, complex, and, oh, hilarious, this memoir ultimately is a quest for strength, wildness, and love, for a deeper vision of all things Earth. Surely this is my favorite graphic memoir I've read in years.

A charming, wise, and haunting book. [I've known] that town quite well for the last thirty years, [and Mahdavian has] captured it in all its complexity."

In Mahdavian's hands, comics feel like poetry.Perfect ink drawings bring land, beast, and humans, with all their delicacy and yearning, viscerally to life. This Country . . . made me want to grant my own surroundings the grace, humor, and dignity ofMahdavian's observant study.

This Country is touching, personal, and frequently hilarious. Mahdavian weaves heavy themes of home and belonging with disarming moments of silliness and levity. It's a story specific to his experience, yet relatable to anyone who has ever searched for a place to be.

Enamored of nature and dazzled by fantasies of the rugged West, a young mixed-race couple builds a tiny home in the wilds of Idahoand must confront an America at odds with itself. In This Country, Mahdavian explores today's cultural divide with a keen eye and a graceful touch. The resulting portrait is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, elegant and complex, brutal and tender. I dare you not to fall in love.

Ostensibly, This Country is about a couple finding their place in the world and learning the true history of the land they're building a life ona land that has seen both turmoil and awebut amid the harsh truth, blatant racism, and struggles to fit in, there is so much beauty and humor and compassion. Mahdavian's drawings are deceptively simple, perfectly capturing the wonder of little everyday occurrences. Of time moving, a small family growing and changing, of an entire country still reckoning with past and present mistakes. This is a very important book for pretty much everyone.

This Country is a hilarious and sometimes harrowing graphic memoir about the Mahdavians' quest to live self-sufficiently in rural Idaho. Learning how to cut down a tree to heat your own house and grow your own vegetables is only one part of it... Wonderful drawings and beautiful writing make this book a great read.