The Nightingale That Never Sang
What happens when a little girl encounters something she doesn’t yet know how to face? In her debut graphic novel, Juliana Hyrri opens the curtain on six real-life secrets. The stories are driven by a child’s logic and sometimes questionable innocence, and it is not always easy to distinguish between fact and fiction. We return to the mysterious child figure we once were, but can never be again. We step into her little shoes and into a world that does not follow adult rules.
The Nightingale That Never Sang won the 2020 Critics’ Award.
Publishing information
Rights sold
- English Worldwide
- French
Awards & nominations
Awards
2020
Critics’ Spurs
Reviews
“The stories in The Nightingale That Never Sang are among the best artistic evocations of an adult artist’s understanding of the events of childhood that I’ve ever encountered, beautifully and dangerously fusing the events as they are remembered with the meaning that was so elusive at the time. It’s an arresting and accomplished work that heralds the arrival of a major talent, a work that understands exactly what it is doing and never makes a misstep. And like the memories it brings to life, it allows us to look at the events it portrays in two ways: with the strange wonder of youth, and with the dreadful understanding of maturity.”
“This is her first collected book, and it is a miraculous achievement, one of the most impressive works of comic art of the year. Its six tales are extraordinarily precise, cohesive, and expressive, with an artistic consistency that belies the wild variation in their moods, which are, after all, the mercurial moods of a young child. Having read them once, the reader is almost compelled to read them again, to see what magic their small but thunderous revelations have hidden.”
“There is a delightful poignancy to the perceptive comic book novellas. (...) The Nightingale That Never Sang is one of the most exhilarating titles of the current comic book year. Here is an artist whose work should be kept an eye on in the future.”
“Juliana Hyrri is capable of depicting childhood scenes, everyday life and moving events in a very evocative, sensitive and poetic way, almost through the power of images alone.”
“The Nightingale That Never Sang has strength and sensitivity, with echoes of long-hidden secrets and dislocated shame. The best debut in years.”
“The Nightingale That Never Sang looks at the world through the eyes of a child and an adult at the same time. The end result is an exceptional blend of innocent beauty and miraculous cruelty.”
