Piero

This affecting, Proustian dip into childhood memory follows a relationship between two brothers in all its intensity and complexity. Young Edmond, nicknamed Momon, plays, competes, and draws with his brother, Piero, who is slightly better than he is at everything. Living in the French countryside with only each other for company, the brothers grow up slightly out of step with the rest of the world. Their shared fantasies of communing with a space alien or flying through the air are as real to them as their home and parents, and they become obsessed with art to the point that it comes as a shock when they go to school and discover other kids don’t draw all the time. As they get older, the brothers are tempted away from creative passions by the allure of impressing girls and competing with rival boys, and they realize that their parents can afford to indulge only one son in pursuing an artistic career. Baudoin lays pages in loose pen-and-ink, with rounded figures inhabiting vibrantly sketched settings, which suggest something between classical Renaissance cartoons and great children’s book artists like Maurice Sendak and Edward Ardizzone. His evocation of childhood, at once dreamlike and intensely vivid, makes the reader inclined to agree with the brothers when they say that “it’s a little dumb to grow up.” (Nov.)