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“Brilliant, witty and endlessly inventive – an intimate family portrait of astonishing historical reach. It’s warm, humane, complex and with a cumulative emotional power that floored me.” Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine
A road-trip across Europe and back in time: the debut graphic memoir from the prize-winning author of A Funeral In Freiburg.
When her imperious, chain-smoking German Jewish grandmother dies, it falls to Astrid and her father to drive a hire van to the Black Forest and collect the family heirlooms from Gisela’s nicotine-stained apartment.
In Freiburg, they are faced with several lifetimes’ worth of belongings to sort through - infested Persian rugs, mysterious photographs, a toy monkey that started a marriage - and a grasping landlord, impatient to renovate.
As the list of demands from uncles, sisters and cousins grows longer, the rabbit-holes of history and memory grow deeper. Long-buried secrets and tales of survival are revealed, from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa and old feuds are reignited, as father and daughter struggle with the responsibility of preserving the family legacy. More importantly, will they be able to fit everything into a medium wheel-base transit van?
Funny, bittersweet and beautifully drawn, The Crystal Vase is an odyssey of family arguments, identity crises and late discoveries.