Book Club Collection: 'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane's child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and    of her own extraordinary family.

Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, through laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love 
(Summary provided by the publisher.)

Marjane Satrapi is an Academy Award-nominated director, cartoonist, and author of the bestselling graphic memoir Persepolis. Now over a decade since it’s original publication, Persepolis is still praised and widely read; it was a New York Times Notable Book, a TIME Magazine “Best Comix of the Year,” and has sold over two million copies worldwide. In wise and meaningful talks, Satrapi speaks to audiences of all ages about her upbringing in a war-torn Iran, the struggle of feeling estranged from one’s homeland, and the importance of telling complex human stories in literature and film.

In the critically acclaimed Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi uses comic strips to tell her story of growing up in Iran against the backdrop of the Islamic Revolution and a war with Iraq. This one-of-a-kind memoir is at once a touching coming-of-age story and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. Since its publication, Persepolis has stirred up controversy for its political viewpoints and is often cited as an impactful “banned book,” with The American Library Association including it on a list of Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2014. Satrapi’s other literary achievements include Persepolis 2, which chronicles Satrapi’s return to Iran after the Revolution; Chicken with Plums; Embroideries; and several other books for children.

In addition to writing books, Marjane Satrapi is also a talented film director. Most prominently, she directed the animated film adaptation of Persepolis, which won the Cannes Jury Prize and was nominated for an Oscar in 2008. She has directed and written other moving films such as Chicken with Plums, The Voices, and most recently, Radioactive, a biopic of scientist Marie Curie, which was produced by Amazon Prime Video and stars Rosamund Pike. 

Marjane Satrapi (born 1969, Rasht, Iran) is an Iranian artist, director, and writer whose graphic novels explore the gaps and junctures between Iran and the West. She lives in Paris.

Early life
Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran, in 1969. An only child, she moved with her father, an engineer, and her mother, a clothing designer, to Tehrān, where she grew up and attended the Lycée Français.

After the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, her family’s Western way of life drew the attention of Iranian authorities, and by 1984 her parents had decided to send her to Austria to attend school. A failed relationship there exacerbated her sense of alienation and contributed to a downward spiral that left her homeless and using drugs.

Satrapi returned to Tehrān at age 19, studied art, and, after a short-lived marriage, moved back to Europe in 1993. In France she earned a degree in art, and by the mid-1990s she was living permanently in Paris.

Persepolis series
Satrapi published the books Persepolis 1 (2000) and Persepolis 2 (2001) in France; they were combined as Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood when translated into English in 2003. Sometimes described as a graphic memoir, Persepolis melds the format of a graphic novel with a prose-only memoir. In it she used a stripped-down visual style that shows the influence of German Expressionism to tell the story of her childhood in Tehrān. It is a story that many readers outside of Iran have found at once familiar—a restive adolescent who loves Nike shoes and rock music—and foreign—she is stopped and threatened with arrest for wearing those shoes as she walks through a city damaged by bombing raids during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980–88. Satrapi adapted her book as a film, also called Persepolis (2007), which was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature. She directed it with Vincent Paronnaud.

Persepolis 3 and Persepolis 4 were published in France in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and were translated together into English as Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return in 2004. Persepolis 2 begins where Persepolis ends, with Satrapi living in Europe. The family friend with whom Satrapi was intended to live instead shuffles her to a boarding house, and her life gradually dissolves. She returns to her parents in Iran but feels out of place, and she eventually leaves again for Europe.

From Embroideries and Chicken with Plums to Woman, Life, Freedom
Satrapi, who writes in French, continued to probe the boundaries between graphic novel and memoir with Broderies (2003; Embroideries). It consists of stories told by Satrapi’s mother, grandmother, and other female relatives and friends about their experiences as women living in Iran.

Satrapi also created the illustrated children’s books Les Monstres n’aiment pas la lune (2001; Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon) and Le Soupir (2004; The Sigh).

In Poulet aux prunes (Chicken with Plums), published in 2004, Satrapi recounts the story of her great-uncle, a renowned tar (lute) player who resolves to die when he cannot adequately replace his broken instrument. It was adapted as a movie that was released in 2011; Satrapi wrote and directed it with Paronnaud.

Satrapi’s other work as a film director includes the English-language dark comedy The Voices (2014), which presents a man who, having failed to take his medication, becomes a murderer, and Radioactive (2019), a biopic about Marie Curie.

Satrapi coordinated the work of more than 20 artists and writers to create Femme, vie, liberté, a graphic novel published in French in 2023 and in English as Woman, Life, Freedom in 2024. It shares the name of the protest movement that rose to global awareness after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, who died while in Iranian police custody after being arrested for “improper” clothing in 2022. Woman, Life, Freedom tells the stories of the women demanding their rights through the movement. In 2024 Satrapi, who contributed a section on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told NPR why she found it essential to document this new Iranian revolution through images:

A comic has this advantage because the first language of the human being is drawing. So it’s an immediate relationship that we have with image.…Instead of using 1,000 words, you draw an image, and a human being understands what this image is about.
(Biography provided by the PRH Speakers and Encyclopaedia Britannica)