by Gilbert Hernandez In his first graphic novel in two years, Hernandez's The Book of Ofelia begins with Luba, Ofelia and company trying to acclimate to life in America. When Ofelia decides to chronicle her life with Luba in a tell-all book, she discovers inspiration in Luba's young children - the one-armed Casimira, Socorro with the photographic memory, the loner Joselito and the silent Conchita. See Latino soap opera and soft-core porn, with touches of magic-realism, all in one!

Presents an illustrated biography of the Jewish heroine, Luba Tryszynska, who saved the lives of more than fifty Jewish children in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the winter of 1944/45.

Gilbert Hernandez’s sprawling family saga focuses on the United States, where newly immigrated Luba and her sisters, body-builder Petra and therapist/film star Fritz, find their families’ and friends’ lives becoming more and more intertwined. As the three sisters have “memories of sweet youth,” the next generation finds the spotlight: Luba’s adult daughter Doralís emcees the proceedings in her role as mischievous host of a children’s TV show, while Petra’s little girl, Venus, has adventures with her aunt Fritz and her best friend Yoshio. At her mother’s urging, Venus also writes missives to her fierce, one-armed cousin Casimira, who’s back in Palomar. In these stories ― never before collected together ― Venus tells it like it is!

Surveys the history, culture, and contemporary life of the Luba people of Zaire.

Finalist for the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Graphic Novels: the sequel to the 2003 perennial classic, Palomar.

...In conjunction with an exhibition ... presented by the Museum for African Art, New York (2 february - 8 september 1996)