The Complete Persepolis
SynopsisPlot
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.
Story
About this book
The Complete Persepolis collects Marjane Satrapi's two-part graphic memoir about growing up in Tehran during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Drawn in stark black-and-white panels, the book follows Satrapi from early childhood through adolescence and into young adulthood. She belongs to an unusual family: her great-grandfather was Iran's last emperor, and her parents were committed Marxists. The household is politically outspoken, and Satrapi grows up surrounded by relatives who have been imprisoned or have lived in exile.
As political conditions in Iran tighten, her parents send the teenage Satrapi to Vienna for school. There she faces isolation, language barriers, and the ordinary confusion of adolescence, all far from her family. She eventually returns to Tehran, where she finds both comfort and new difficulties in a country that has continued to change. The tension between public restrictions and private freedoms runs through the entire narrative. Satrapi later leaves Iran again, this time on her own terms.
The memoir is presented in a simple, direct drawing style that suits its tone. Satrapi uses the graphic format to compress years of personal and political history into clear visual sequences, moving between family scenes, school life, and the larger events shaping Iran during the 1980s and 1990s.
