The Book of Denial

“This story is the worst story in the world,” warn Mexican writer Castañeda and graphic designer Macallanes in the opening pages of this eerie hybrid graphic narrative. An unseen boy peeks into the book his father is writing and is shocked to discover a chronicle of cruelty to children throughout history, from biblical stories of child sacrifices by the Canaanites and the massacre of the Holy Innocents to the medieval Children’s Crusade and modern-day abuse. “Children must know this story of terror,” the father whispers to the narrator’s mother, because “it belongs to them.” As the narrator comes to realize that these horrors are real history, and that his father is devastated by the task of recording them, he attempts to destroy the manuscript, then to revise it. The text winds around abstracted black-and-white illustrations: scattered pencil shavings, floating letters, an hourglass full of numbers, disjointed body parts. “How can you see letters without wanting to read them?” the narrator asks as he’s drawn again and again to the disturbing text. An artful blend of typography, photos, and illustration on each page pulls the reader in deeper, despite the oppressive air of menace: “Is there anyone more killable than a child?” This shocking, mournful record and darkly attractive art object is designed to haunt. (Jan.)