Lissa: A Story About Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution

Revolution is as intimate as family and as mammoth as regime change in this graphic novel focused on the 2011 Tahrir Square demonstrations. Egyptian Layla and American Anna meet as childhood friends in Cairo and support each other through the deaths of parents, neighborhood strife, and, as Anna returns to the U.S., a separation spanning thousands of miles. But as Anna discovers that she is likely to inherit her mother’s fatal breast cancer, and as Layla’s medical education is derailed by political upheaval, their connection frays. The plot is anchored in moments of grace; as Layla picks up prescriptions for her ailing family, Anna wakes from an elective mastectomy, and protests turn bloody, the focus is on the helpers. This is the book’s greatest strength: its belief in decency, even amidst violence and trauma. Its hopeful mood is mirrored by the book’s rounded, flowing visuals: bandages flutter like hair ribbons, water sluices down Anna’s surgical scars, and Layla’s eyes are wide as she tends to the grievously wounded. This is a chronicle of conflict, to be sure, but it is also a tribute to persistence of friendship and the power of a people united. [em](Dec.) [/em]