Maus: A Survivor's Tale - Art Spiegelman

This was intriguing: the life of the author’s father, who was a Polish Jew during the Nazi occupation. It is in the form of a graphic novel, and in a daring tactic the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Nazis as cats and the gentile Poles as pigs. The strange thing is that you accept this conceit very quickly, allowing Spiegelman to get on with telling the story, and it allows for some brilliant effects, as when Jews disguise themselves as gentiles by wearing pig masks.

It’s a harrowing tale, of course, one that is both familiar and well worth retelling. The biggest risk in terms of storytelling is that Spiegelman interweaves his relationship with his parents and the process of researching the book into the narrative. It works brilliantly, and adds another level of interest to this fascinating read.