Ballad for Sophie

 

Information: 

Author: Filipe Melo

Illustrator: Juan Cavia

Translator: Gabriela Soares

Release date: September 7, 2021

My Thoughts:

For the older YA graphic novel reader, Ballad for Sophie tackles questions like can power, privilege and success be "bought"? What is the physical and emotional toll of regret? This story about a young journalist and a highly successful but very bitter and isolated artist at the end of his life acts as a kind of allegory for readers. I found it similar in artistic style and tone to the graphic novel adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but without as much booze, drugs and sex.  I think the questions I am left with at the end of this story is what is the cost of success and what is the cost of "winning"?

From the Publisher:

A young journalist prompts a reclusive piano superstar to open up, resulting in this stunning graphic sonata exploring a lifetime of rivalry, regret, and redemption.

1933. In the small French village of Cressy-la-Valoise, a local piano contest brings together two brilliant young players: Julien Dubois, the privileged heir of a wealthy family, and François Samson, the janitor's son. One wins, one loses, and both are changed forever.

1997. In a huge mansion stained with cigarette smoke and memories, a bitter old man is shaken by the unexpected visit of an interviewer. Somewhere between reality and fantasy, Julien composes, like in a musical score, a complex and moving story about the cost of success, rivalry, redemption, and flying pianos.

When all is said and done, did anyone ever truly win? And is there any music left to play?

Under the Broken Sky

 

My Thoughts:

This story of the Japanese in Manchuria during and right after World War II is a new history for me and this historical fiction told in simple verse does a great job of telling that history through the eyes of the most vulnerable: the children/orphans left to push forward in a hostile environment and make their way to an unknown/unrealistic future they call home.

Like any good historical fiction, especially one told in sparse verse, what Under the Broken Sky does is leave the reader more curious about the actual history that is definitely untold in America, but probably largely untold in Japan too. When a book leaves me with more questions than answers, when it causes me to want to research, when it forces me to tap into my own lens to guess at what happened to these characters, then the author has done her job. Ms. Nagai gives us just enough water to make us realize that we are thirsty.  

One of the things this book led me to, mostly because I suspected that this would be the case, is to research what life in a newly defeated Japan actually would be like for these orphans, especially since some of these children were born in Manchuria. Historically, even when they are powerful, Japanese have not taken kindly to any group they see as "foreign," so the fact that the Japanese returning to Japan to seek out family were given a special label "hikiagesha" as a way to mark them as repatriates even on government documents just means that this is a history that needs to be remembered, but it was not pleasant. 

From the Publisher:

Twelve-year-old Natsu and her family live a quiet farm life in Manchuria, near the border of the Soviet Union. But the life they've known begins to unravel when her father is recruited to the Japanese army, and Natsu and her little sister, Asa, are left orphaned and destitute.
In a desperate move to keep her sister alive, Natsu sells Asa to a Russian family following the 1945 Soviet occupation. The journey to redemption for Natsu's broken family is rife with struggles, but Natsu is tenacious and will stop at nothing to get her little sister back.
Literary and historically insightful, this is one of the great untold stories of WWII. Much like the Newbery Honor book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Mariko Nagai's Under the Broken Sky is powerful, poignant, and ultimately hopeful.