Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Graphic Novel Mourns Colombian 9/11 Victim
September 7, 2008

First time author Alissa Torres lost her husband Eddie in the World Trade Center tragedy on September 11^th. Eddie had come to the United States from Colombia and eventually landed a job at Cantor-Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center. His first day of work was September 10, 2001. As a young widow who was seven months pregnant, Torres eventually turned to writing as a way to process and handle her grief.

American Widow is Torres' personal story of what she endured without the brutal images of billowing smoke clouds, but just the emotions. Illustrated by Sungyoon Choi, American Widow was published by Random House's Villard imprint  and edited by Chris Schluep. According to an article about the book by PW's graphic novel guru Calvin Reid, Ballantine Books' Villard has became a destination imprint for nonmaga original graphic novels at Random House. In the interview, Schluep describes this graphic novel that was reviewed this past weekend in The New York Times Book Review as "..sad, alienated and very funny. It's the story of a normal person having an abnormal experience."

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on September 7, 2008 | Comments (0)