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Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution Spiral-Bound |

Sherine Hamdy, Coleman Nye, Caroline Brewer (Illustrated by), Sarula Bao (Illustrated by)

★★★★☆+ from 501 to 1,000 ratings

$40.38 - Free Shipping

The first book in a new series, Lissa brings anthropological research to life in comic form, combining scholarly insights and accessible, visually-rich storytelling to foster greater understanding of global politics, inequalities, and solidarity.

As young girls in Cairo, Anna and Layla strike up an unlikely friendship that crosses class, cultural, and religious divides. Years later, Anna learns that she may carry the hereditary cancer gene responsible for her mother's death. Meanwhile, Layla's family is faced with a difficult decision about kidney transplantation. Their friendship is put to the test when these medical crises reveal stark differences in their perspectives...until revolutionary unrest in Egypt changes their lives forever.

The first book in a new series, Lissa brings anthropological research to life in comic form, combining scholarly insights and accessible, visually-rich storytelling to foster greater understanding of global politics, inequalities, and solidarity.

Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1487593473
Item Weight: 0.9 lbs
Dimensions: 6.0 x 1.2 x 9.0 inches
Customer Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars 501 to 1,000 ratings

"Revolution is as intimate as family and as mammoth as regime change in this graphic novel focused on the 2011 Tahrir Square demonstrations. 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."

-Publishers Weekly
Sherine Hamdy is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. She is currently writing a young-adult graphic novel that tells the coming-of-age story of a Muslim-American woman.