Jamilti and Other Stories
Published by <i>Drawn & Quarterly </i>in 2007, <i>Exit Wounds</i>-a tale at once mystery and romance-introduced North American readers to the colorful and tightly woven narrative by Rutu Modan and was included in <i>Time </i>and <i>Entertainment Weekly</i>'s "best of" lists. <i>Jamilti and Other Stories </i>collects the cartoonist's short works, which lead the reader through unexpected turns of plot and unusual character portraits. Some are darkly fantastical and unsettling, such as the unraveling of a serial-killer murder mystery, or her accounts of an infatuated plastic surgeon and his sanitarium, and a mother back from the dead with dubious healing powers. Others are more attuned to surprising discoveries that shape personal identity, as in the story of a tragic past that lies within a family's theme hotel, or that of a struggling musician who hopes an upcoming gig will be his big break. In "Jamilti," Modan addresses political violence with a suicide bombing that shakes up a day in the lives of a young couple.