Aya: Claws Come Out

By Marguerite Abouet & Clément Oubrerie. Published by Drawn & Quarterly. 

Hardcover, 128 pages, Colour, 2024 (originally published in French in 2022)

Abidjan’s favorite daughter returns in an all-new volume of writer Marguerite Abouet’s beloved series

Long-time creative team Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie make a stunning comeback after a lengthy twelve-year hiatus. Aya: Claws Come Out takes us all back to Yop City—home to the hustle and bustle of the Ivory Coast.

As Solibra’s newest intern, clear-eyed college student Aya finds an unexpected adversary in the beer giant’s brand-new head of HR. Her friend Moussa, heir apparent to the company’s CEO Mr. Sissoko vies for his father’s attention while struggling to tone down his tendency to party. After being outed, Albert must find a new place to stay and grapples with the realities of insufficient student housing. His old flame Inno discovers first-hand how difficult life can be for undocumented migrants in France. Back at home, Bintou navigates the ups and downs of newfound soap opera stardom. All the while, Didier just wants to take Aya out to dinner—if she can ever find the time.

Now translated from the French by Edwige Dro, Aya and all her friends greet the bigger, bolder world of the 80s in true Abidjan style, delighting fans both old and new with vibrant but too often unseen depictions of middle-class life in Africa.

"Abouet’s brilliantly illustrated series about the lives of three friends in Abidjan is as funny and sharp as ever [with] feminist sass and distinctive wit."—The Guardian

"[Aya] is full of everyday heroes, and topping the list is Aya herself, a young woman navigating the delights and obstacles of early adulthood in the West African nation of Ivory Coast."—Elian Peltier, The New York Times

"Oubrerie [has an] innate ability to bring neighbourhoods to life with seemingly effortless scratches of his pen."—Broken Frontier

"Just as in any other great soap opera, the last page leaves the reader desperate to find out what will happen next."—blogcritics

"An absorbing and eye popping look at Africa in the 1990s."—Youth Services Book Review