This second volume of the complete Ayaincludes unique appendices-recipes, guides to understanding Ivorian slang, street sketches, and concluding remarks from Marguerite Abouet explaining history and social milieu. With a little help from the tight-knit community of Yopougon though, Aya comes through these trials stronger than ever. When a professor tries to take advantage of Aya, her plans to become a doctor are seriously shaken, and she vows to take revenge on the lecherous man.

While the stories found in Aya: Love in Yop Citymaintain their familiar tone, quick pace, and joyfulness, we see Aya and her friends beginning to make serious decisions about their future. Ayais a lighthearted story about life in the Ivory Coast during the 1970s, a particularly thriving and wealthy time in the country's history. She lives in Montreal.THE DRAMATIC CONCLUSION TO THE AYA SERIES Aya: Love in Yop Citycomprises the final three chapters of the Ayastory, episodes never before seen in English. With a background in art history and history, she also translates books and exhibitions for museums in North America and Europe. A contributor to Drawn & Quarterly since the early days, her translations include acclaimed titles such as Hostage by Guy Delisle and Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. Dascher has been translating graphic novels from French and German to English for over twenty years. Aya is the winner of the Best First Album award at the Angouleme International Comics Festival, the Children’s Africana Book Award, and the Glyph Award was nominated for the Quill Award, the YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels list, and the Eisner Award and was included on “best of” lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.Īya: Life in Yop City has been translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Drawn & Quarterly has release volumes four through six of the original French series (as yet unpublished in English) in Aya: Love in Yop City. This reworked edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in the lively world of Aya and her friends, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One. It’s wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City.Ĭlément Oubrerie’s warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet’s vibrant writing.

It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted 19-year old Aya, her easy-going friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet’s youth in Yop City. It’s a golden time, and the nation, too-an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa-seems fueled by something wondrous.

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