Anna

By Mia Oberländer. Translated by Nika Knight. Published by Fantagraphics. 

Softcover, 220 pages, Colour, 2024

This debut graphic novel by an up-and-coming star of the German comics scene is an audacious allegory of female resistance and radical acceptance.

In the sleepy German countryside live the Annas, cursed to be too tall for their small town. Laughably long-limbed and gangly, their bodies refuse to conform with societal norms of delicate femininity, and the trauma of being different ripples across generations. And yet, there may be a blessing to their burden; like the mighty mountains surrounding their town, they find that there is resilience and strength to be gained from their heightened perspective. Drawn with delightful exaggeration and formal inventiveness, Anna is a tongue-in-cheek, modern-day fairy tale about being “too big” for a narrow-minded world.

The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut.

"Body consciousness and generational trauma cast long shadows in this inventive, dexterous modern fable from promising newcomer Oberländer. A versatile stylist, Oberländer shifts from minimalist wooden-toy-like village scenes to faces evoking Picasso's neoclassical portraits. Readers of all ages will want to linger over every page of this clever feminist tale." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This book is a highly entertaining tour de force, running the entire emotional gamut." — Joe Kessler (The Gull Yettin, 2023)

"Oberländer's underlying message of female bodies striving to conform to spaces too narrow to contain them is powerful." — NY Journal of Books

"A strongly feminist, starkly adorned debut effort." — Cinema Sentries

"An absolutely wonderful, amusing and sometimes deeply sad graphic novel that tells the story of three generations of very tall women. With haunting, sometimes grotesquely exaggerated images, Oberländer creates a true story that combines historical, social and psychological lines." — Birgit Reuther - Hamburger Abendblatt