Alpha: Abidjan to Paris

by Bessora, Barroux (Illustrator), Sarah Ardizzone (Translator)

Overview

Doctors Without Borders Prize
PEN Promotes Award
GLLI (Global Literature in Libraries Initiative) Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist
CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Longlist
Library Journal “Best Book of the Year” selection
School Library Journal “Best Adult Book 4 Teens” selection
Comics Journal “Best Comic of the Year” selection

“Barroux’s raw illustrations and Bessora’s matter-of-fact text express the inhumanity at the heart of the refugee crisis.” —School Library Journal “Best Adult Book 4 Teens” citation

Alpha's wife and son left Côte d'Ivoire months ago to join his sister-in-law in Paris, but Alpha has heard nothing from them since. With a visa, Alpha's journey to reunite with his family would take a matter of hours. Without one, he is adrift for over a year, encountering human traffickers in the desert, refugee camps in northern Africa, overcrowded boats carrying migrants between the Canary Islands and Europe's southern coast, and an unforgettable cast of fellow travelers lost and found along the way. Throughout, Alpha stays the course, carrying his loved ones' photograph close to his heart as he makes his perilous trek across continents.

Featuring emotive, full-color artwork created in felt-tip pen and wash, Alpha is an international award–winning graphic novel supported by Amnesty International that received the PEN Promotes Award and Doctors Without Borders Prize, and was longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. The U.S. edition is sponsored by Le Korsa, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving human lives in Senegal.

Bessora is an award-winning writer of Swiss, German, French, Polish, and Gabonese heritage whose work has been anthologized in Best European Fiction.

Barroux is a French graphic artist who spent much of his childhood in North Africa and whose illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Forbes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942658405
Publisher:	Bellevue Literary Press
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	704,863
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Bessora is an award-winning author of Swiss, German, French, Polish, and Gabonese heritage whose work has been anthologized in Best European Fiction and has received the Fénéon Prize and Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire. Raised in Europe, America, and Africa, she has traveled extensively and her fiction is underpinned by extensive research and her training as an anthropologist. Alpha, forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press, is her first graphic novel. She lives in Paris.

Barroux was born in Paris and spent much of his childhood in North Africa. After studying photography, art, sculpture, and architecture, he worked as an art director in Paris and Montreal before beginning his career as an illustrator. His work includes the children's book Where's the Elephant?, longlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the graphic novel Line of Fire, based on the diary of an unknown soldier from the First World War, and the graphic novel Alpha, forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press. His illustrations have also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Forbes. He lives in Paris.

Sarah Ardizzone is an award-winning translator from the French. She is the translator of the graphic novel Alpha, forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press, and over forty other titles including The Little Prince Graphic Novel, a New York Times Notable Book. Ardizzone has twice won the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation. She also curates educational programs, including Translation Nation, Translators in Schools, and the Spectacular Translation Machine. She lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

04/02/2018
A migrant’s harrowing journey to follow his wife and son to Paris from Côte d’Ivoire unfolds in an illustrated narrative that reveals the difficult existences of African migrants. The reason for Alpha’s family’s flight isn’t clear; though he says of Côte d’Ivoire, “if you stay here, you’ll be dead,” he does not explain the danger more specifically. After being denied a French visa, Alpha travels illicitly across desert borders and then earns money for passage across the Mediterranean by working in camps and villages in Mali. Along the way, he collects a makeshift traveling family: a youth who dreams of playing professional soccer, a young sex worker, and a small boy who is on his own. Alpha strives to keep this group together all the way to the Moroccan coast, but the dangers along the way make separation inevitable. The impressionistic watercolor marker renderings of characters and settings convey mood, but the people and places are just as blurry and unsolid as Alpha’s dreamlike narrative. Solidity comes in the end in the form of a third-person epilogue, which abruptly concludes the story. Though the volume doesn’t give easy answers and would have benefitted from a bit more story detail, it nonetheless movingly depicts Alpha’s challenging passage. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Doctors Without Borders Prize
PEN Promotes Award
GLLI (Global Literature in Libraries Initiative) Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist
CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Longlist
Library Journal “Best Book of the Year” & “Must-Have Graphic Novel for Black History Month and Beyond” selection
School Library Journal “Best Adult Book 4 Teens” selection
Comics Journal “Best Comic of the Year” selection
Publishers Weekly “Hot Topic” selection
Book Riot “Must-Read Comics about Brave People Who Aren’t Superheroes” selection

"Groundbreaking. . . . Stunning text." —Guardian

"Bessora's prose and Barroux's illustrations join to illuminate the heart-wrenching journey of a West African refugee. . . . The reader is drawn into the refugee's experience and shares his agonizing odyssey via the graphic novel's blunt yet poetic language." —World Literature Today

"The international refugee crisis is given a singular expression in this affecting work." —PEN America

"Alpha is the story of everyone who bravely risks all they know for the hope of a better future. . . . Honest and direct rather than inspiring and romantic, Alpha gives a name and face to the multitudes in refugee camps all over the world. An important story for all of us to know." —New York Journal of Books

"The text is blunt, matter of fact, but also painfully deep and poetic. . . . [The illustrations] effortlessly complement the text. . . . The washes of greys and blacks stain the page much like tears. This powerful book is an important one. It needs to be in the hands of every citizen of the world, so they can, for a moment, peer into the plight of others and, perhaps, reshape how refugees are viewed." —Literature, Arts and Medicine Database

"To those who say that 'illegal' migrants are line-jumpers, [Alpha] . . . is a vivid retort." —The Common

"Intimately told. . . . Masterfully composed. While immigration may be a contentious political issue, Alpha reminds us of the people behind the headlines: those who inhabit the smugglers' compartments in rickety trucks, pay for fake passports, and trust their lives to boats that are barely seaworthy, all in search of a better future for themselves and their families." —Foreword Reviews

"As political debates and news reports on immigration proliferate, rare is empathetic reportage of the actual experiences and desperation these migrants face. . . . Alpha is that compassionate link. . . . 'You can't wash away the dust,' Bessora writes. 'It's not just in the streets—the dust has settled in people’s hearts.' Alpha: Abidjan to Paris draws a refugee with empathy and compassion, in an effort to lift the dust in people's hearts." —Shelf Awareness for Readers

"A compelling tale. . . . Heartbreaking and timely." —Kirkus Reviews

"The plight of the refugee is brought to brutally vivid life in this visual diary. . . . By homing in on the experience of one symbolic individual, Alpha humanizes the too-often faceless tragedy." —Booklist

"Lays forth the many forms of devastation suffered by lives adrift while introducing memorable characters." —Library Journal

"A migrant's harrowing journey to follow his wife and son to Paris from Côte d'Ivoire unfolds in an illustrated narrative that . . . movingly depicts Alpha's challenging passage." —Publishers Weekly

"[Alpha] breaks from the traditional dynamic graphic novel format of panels and speech bubbles. Rather, Bessora's expressive words serve as captions to the half-page illustrations. . . . Subtle elements of collage are incorporated; small photographs, often of young children, peek into the fore- or background of certain scenes. . . . This stark, poetic story personalizes immigration. For all libraries." —School Library Journal (starred review)

"[A] unique work in comics. . . . The fate of the immigrant is in crisis across the globe, including in the United States of America. Books like Alpha help to educate the public and help to build toward a safer and more merciful world." —Comics Grinder

"[Alpha's] tale of smugglers, fake passports, wasted bribes, and desperate migration is happening today. . . . Great graphic novels, like great novels, can spread the gift of empathy." —Illustration Concentration

"A powerful graphic novel that is also suitable for young adults. . . . [Alpha's] first-person account of his 'adventures' devolves into a living nightmare as the journey drags on with a constantly changing group of companions. The prose is simple, and the story is told without embellishment. . . . The illustrations set a mood of haste and simplicity, appearing to be marker sketches—almost as if they could have been made on the journey. . . . It will be difficult to look upon the plight of any refugees without reflecting on Alpha's journey." —Shelf-employed

"Takes us to the human soul of the migrant crisis and the exploitation they face." —Daily Record

"Moving." —L'humanité

"It's impossible to come away unscathed from this beautiful and urgent graphic novel." —Notes Bibliographiques

"A searing tale of our time. . . . Once you read this deeply troubling book, passing by, looking away, is no longer an option." —Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse and An Eagle in the Snow

"The emotion of Barroux's simple art and layouts pulled me along on Alpha's journey. This book stands out, along with Don Brown's The Unwanted, from other graphic novels about the current refugee crisis." —Gene Ambaum, co-creator of Unshelved and the Library Comic

"Amnesty International UK endorses Alpha because it provides insight into the realities of migration and the desperate search for a better life." —Nicky Parker, Publisher of Amnesty International UK

From the Publisher

11/01/2018
Alpha and several other Africans hire a rickety minibus to sneak them from C{amp}ocirc;te d'Ivoire toward Algeria in order to cross the Mediterranean for a better life in Europe. But lack of water, police beatings, diseases and drownings lie ahead. Bessora lays forth the devastation suffered by memorable characters who draw empathy, admiration, and chuckles. Barroux's spare, marker-based art style suggests an immigrant's graphic diary. (LJ 6/1/18)

Library Journal

★ 05/01/2018
Gr 10 Up—Alpha does not consider himself "illegal"; he thinks of himself as an adventurer. But he's even stronger, or perhaps just luckier, than most wayfarers. He says, "Indiana Jones would have died eight times over" if he'd been faced with the thirst, uncertainty, deception, illness, and death that Alpha experiences on his months-long trek from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, to Paris, France, making the same journey as his wife and child. Yet his legal path to immigration is stymied by an endless loop of required documentation and fees, and he is forced to bribe his way into traffickers' faulty cars. Alpha faces frustration and pain with optimism, accompanied by other dreamers looking for hope in Europe. Barroux's illustrations are spare and imprecise, mirroring the bleak and unsettling odyssey. Sponsored by grants and nonprofit organizations such as Amnesty International, the book breaks from the traditional dynamic graphic novel format of panels and speech bubbles. Rather, Bessora's expressive words serve as captions to the half-page illustrations, making the work feel more like a photo journal at times. Subtle elements of collage are incorporated; small photographs, often of young children, peek into the fore- or background of certain scenes. While the visuals and language are not explicit, they depict gambling, prostitution, AIDS, infant mortality, and murder. A map offers readers context. VERDICT This stark, poetic story personalizes immigration. For all libraries.—Anna Murphy, Berkeley Carroll School, Brooklyn

School Library Journal

2019-04-14
This graphic novel from author Bessora, illustrator Barroux (How Many Trees?, 2019, etc.), and translator Ardizzone follows a migrant's arduous journey from West Africa to Europe.

Alpha is a cabinetmaker in the Ivory Coast who wants to take his family to visit his sister-in-law in Paris, but he runs into a mountain of red tape when applying for a visa. "When you leave the consulate, one thing's for sure—you understand that Côte d'Ivoire loves France more than France loves Côte d'Ivoire," explains Alpha, before wryly adding, "But, seeing as Côte d'Ivoire doesn't love its own people very much either, Ivorians still flee for Europe." So Alpha goes into debt to pay a smuggler to start his wife and son on their journey to France. Six months later, Alpha sells his cabinet shop to pay yet another smuggler in hopes of following his family's path. The book has the appearance of a photo album, most pages presenting a stack of two equal-sized, rectangular images with a short paragraph of Alpha's deeply human narration beneath each illustration, documenting his journey. As Alpha quickly learns, the road out of Africa is beset with con men, drunken soldiers, endless dusty desert, and death—but also kindred spirits. Barroux's illustrations have a deceptively simple quality, with heavy lines and people with dots for eyes and bulbous, shiny noses; that simplicity makes an ill migrant's hollow stare or the stiff joints of a body left to rot all the more haunting. Bessora is a fiction writer whose work "is underpinned by extensive research," according to the author bio, though the origin of this story is unspecified. It is a compelling tale, though major events transpire in the text-only epilogue, which is delivered by an omniscient narrator rather than Alpha, robbing the conclusion of some of its heft.

Heartbreaking and timely.

Kirkus Reviews