Habibi (Pantheon Graphic Library)

Don’t worry, I wont mention anything about the plot, but the art in the book is the draw that holds everything together: lavish page designs, confident linework, and panels that feel hand-carved. The Arabic calligraphy is the book’s most striking feature, not just ornament but structure—words that become patterns, patterns that become meaning. Thompson in this book has definitely treated calligraphy as ‘music for the eyes.’

Everything is excellent in this book. The condition, story, artwork, all are excellent. I read the full book of 650 pages or so in just one sitting of 4hours. Will check now the other work of same artist for sure.

Been a fantasy to own one of these

Book is hard bound and a pretty thick volume. Promptly shipped and recieved within 3 days in perfect condition. Superb and detailed art work in pen and ink (no colours) , compelling story line, paper quality cudve been better, but at this price, the art itself even if on newspaper print , is underpriced, besides it mightve made the book too heavy to be practical. The content is adult, so if u have kids at home.. discretion advised.

இந்த புத்தகத்தை வாங்க தயங்க வேண்டாம் அட்டகாசமான புத்தகம் ஆனால் குழந்தைகளுக்கானது இல்லை இதன் art காகவே வாங்கலாம்

The name say it all. You will fall in love with this book for it's rich artwork and the wonderful storyline.

It's an awesome piece of work. An unique contribution to the world of graphic novel. Each page contains marvelous hand drawn images that blow readers mind. The story is really good.

Good idea of a storyline - lead lady gives you a sense of de javu - probably from one of those from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was it 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'? Spoiler Alert (thanks, Ojaswini for pointing out!) for the para below: A girl bringing up an adopted boy and their ending up in love with each other from late adolescence. Twist that Thompson adds is their seperation - girl ending up in a sultan's harem & the boy with a Hijra group, castrated to 'fit in' and all that - and later reunited and unable to be couple in the real sense. There are some real good intellectual gymnastics of interspersing it with myths and stories and arabic letters - all those exotic stuff that may have been added for improving the 'sells'. Then there're some moments when one tires of the author seeming fetish with the 'perfect female forms' & men's orgies. It's an adult novel & graphic at that too. Art is good. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, for the price listed. I felt it's a waste of my money & precious time - my first thought after reading it, was to dump it outside for whomever interested in the recycled paper value - only thing that stopped me was the high price that I paid to get hold of the book. Though this may sound a bit harsh, but that's genuinely what I felt at the end of the book. I have ordered another 2 Craigs seeing all rave reviews - not cancelling them just as not to cause seller inconvenience. Hope they are at least marginally better than this!

Estoy muy contenta con la compra. Hacía tiempo que quería tener un ejemplar de esta novela gráfica. Compré la versión en inglés, porque la diferencia de precio con la versión española es verdaderamente significativa. El papel es sencillo, pero está bien encuadernado en tapa dura. Hay muchos comentarios aquí que expresan su descontento con la dramática historia de la protagonista. A mi modo de ver, la historia se merece las cinco estrellas. "Habibi" nos muestra la cruda realidad a la que se siguen enfrentando aún hoy muchas mujeres (y niñas) en determinados lugares del planeta. Es dramática sin duda. Pero a pesar de todo, hay un hilo de amor, amistad y compromiso que atraviesa todo el libro. Además, los dibujos de Craig Thompson son, como siempre, exquisitos. Inspirándose en la decoración tradicional y la escritura árabe, el artista creó, en mi opinión, una obra maestra.

Storia emozionante disegni trascinanti

Where do I start when reviewing this work? Firstly I should state that I havent read Craig Thompsons' highly praised graphic novel Blankets. Although I have looked at it many times and seriously considered buying it, there have always been other options at the time. So this is my first, proper, introduction to Thompson. What an introduction this is! Habibi tells the story of two child slaves Dodola and Zam brought together by fate who take us through some of lifes most important lessons as we read their continuing stories in a fictitious Arabian landscape. This book must have been painstakingly researched by the author as its scope and breadth of storytelling is just breathtaking. It was almost too much for me, and I read lots of comics and graphic novels. Encompassing quotes from the Koran and the Bible we see the similarities of the faiths, beautiful drawings of Arabic calligraphy, chemistry, biology, philosophy and all encompassing unconditional love. Indeed it is this which keeps you coming back for more as at its core this is surely a story of love between two people(s) A beautiful 670 page hardback book it is stunningly designed and drawn from front cover to back cover. It reminds me somewhat of the manga Buddha by Osamu Tezuka which is also a work of incredible scope. Beware though, the book does not shy away from adult themes and therefore is probably not for everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

La edición es impresionante, los dibujos son trazos maestros.

While _Habibi_ IS a graphic novel, it is NOT a "comic book" for young readers. The themes, images and plot deal with and address very adult issues: sexuality, gender poliitcs, sex (both consensual and not), human trafficking, ecological destruction. But it is also a complex story of love, hope and redemption. It also underscores the numerous similarities between Islam and Judiamsim and Christianity. There were several things that struck me about the story. First, the artwork: it is detailed, intricate, and stunning. The background patterns, the minutae in the setting and the layout are all dizzyingly beautiful. The incorporation of Arabic (both calligraphy as well as symbols and geometric patterns) is magnificent, and all add to the magical, otherworldly sense of the story. The McGuffin is the "magic square" - a box with nine squares, each square with a numerical value and a corresponding letter. These letters in turn correspond to the nine chapters of the book, each letter relating to a word, each word in turn connecting to the events of the chapter. I thought it very clever. Another strength of the book is its relation to Islamic culture - passages from the Qur'an are sprinkled throughout the book, but also phrases by the poets Rumi and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, Rabi'a Al-Adwiyya, Saadi Shirazi, mathematical treatises by Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi, Avicenna, and calligraphy from a number of artists, as well as mythical beasts like the djinn, buraq, angels and demons and oblique references to Sheherezade. There are also elements of the mysogyny common in rural parts of the Near East and Central Asia - Dodula, our protagonist, suffers horribly the result of this. The storytelling is clever - using the Arabic letters of the "magic square" as a foundation, stories from the Qur'an with the Torah and Tanakh/Old Testament are woven together with the story of Dodula and Zam (the "Habibi" - "sweetheart") as they struggle to survive, face hardship and tragedy, separation and eventually come to some sort of redemption and happiness. But it is a painful and visually graphic (both literally and figuratively). And for some readers, this may be problematic. (In reading the negative reviews, it seems these are the elements that were most troubling.) There is nudity, and there is sex (although not explicitly shown, it is an element of the story), there is rape - which is shown as a brutal act and is not sugar-coated, but it serves to drive the plot. There are transgendered characters, and a character who is clearly mad, castration (drawing from historical context), and a harem (also drawn from historical context). None of these events or characters are created for their own sake, but all have a place in telling the story - and in showing the great diversity of humanity in all its goodness and evilness and complexity. _Habibi_ is a sprawling epic of a story, over 650 pages in length. (I can't imagine the length of time it must've taken to create such detailed images.) But as Thompson writes at the conclusion, "God's followers worship not out of hope for reward nor fear of punishment, but but out of love." _Habibi_, is, in other words, a love story.