Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave - by Yann Damezin (Hardcover)

About the Book

"It is a story known around the world. Born of an Arabic tale, it has been interpreted hundreds of times in Persian, Turkish, and Indian languages. It has influenced playwrights, composers, filmmakers, scholars, modern popular language, the first opera of Islamic origin, and individuals as varied as Aleister Crowley and Eric Clapton. The tragic tale of love unfulfilled - Majnun and Layla. Qays and Layla were madly in love. So in love, it has been said, that the young man could not contain his passion for his beloved, singing to the winds with such fervor he was given the nickname "Majnun" -- The Madman. But their love could not be, as the lovers were separated by fate and man, leading to a tragic end for these star-crossed souls. Experience the classic Persian poem as painted in the lush palette of artist Yann Damezin. Through his brush, we see a decadent and sensorial world, one as raw and vulnerable as the love between the Majnun and his Layla."--

Book Synopsis

The classic Persian poem of romance and tragedy captured as a sumptuous and richly colorful graphic novel, inspired by traditional art of the region.

Winner of the prestigious Prix Orange de la bande dessinée 2022

NYPL List of Best New Comics of 2023 for Adults

It is a story known around the world. Born of an Arabic tale, it has been interpreted hundreds of times in Persian, Turkish, and Indian languages. It has influenced playwrights, composers, filmmakers, scholars, modern popular language, the first opera of Islamic origin, and individuals as varied as Aleister Crowley and Eric Clapton. The tragic tale of love unfulfilled - Majnun and Layla.

Qays and Layla were madly in love. So in love, it has been said, that the young man could not contain his passion for his beloved, singing to the winds with such fervor he was given the nickname "Majnun" -- The Madman. But their love could not be, as the lovers were separated by fate and man, leading to a tragic end for these star-crossed souls.

Experience the classic Persian poem as painted in the lush palette of artist Yann Damezin. Through his brush, we see a decadent and sensorial world, one as raw and vulnerable as the love between the Majnun and his Layla.

Review Quotes

"Through a vibrant visual tapestry, French cartoonist and Angouleme's Prix Orange debut comics winner Damezin reimagines a centuries-old Persian love poem."-- "Starred Publishers Weekly Review"

...a brilliantly accomplished exercise in style,
a hymn to tender, beautiful, subtle and luminous love.-- Jean-Charles Andrieu de Levis (translated) "ActuaLitté"

...an undeniable success, both graphically and literary: all the pages of [Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave] seduce by their graphic inventiveness.--Nicholas Michael (translated) "Jeune Afrique"

With [Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave], whose very rich graphic work competes with a text of rare quality, Damezin offers an opus as surprising as it is exceptional in the field of contemporary comics. --Lea Polverini (translated) "Middle East Eye edition francaise"

Yann Damezin gives beautiful colors to this poetic story but above all gives it a modernity, already approached by the poet Nezâmi (12th century), by giving the female character as much space as the male!--Benoit Gaboriaud (translated) "L'essentiART"

About the Author

Born in 1991, Yann Damezin is passionate about literature and classical music. After his baccalaureate, he joined the prestigious Émile Cohl school in Lyon in order to realize his dream: to become an illustrator. Graphically, his influences are rich and diverse including Persian iconography, Italian primitives, expressionism. These varied influences infuse his visual universe with a very special dimension, tinged with fantasy. He has released several graphic novels in France to great acclaim, including Majnun et Leili, which won the prestigious Prix Orange de la BD, an award granted to promising newcomers to the comics (bande dessinee) scene.

Thomas Harrison, Ph.D., is the Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of European Languages & Transcultural Studies at UCLA, where he teaches literature, translation, aesthetic theory, and Italian film. His most recent book is Of Bridges: A Poetic and Philosophical Account. He is also the author of 1910: The Emancipation of Dissonance, a study of European expressionism across the arts, and of Essayism: Conrad, Musil and Pirandello.

Aqsa Ijaz works on classical Persian poetry and studies its reception in mediaeval and early modern North India. Born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan - she is trained in classical music and specialises in the vocal forms of thumri and ghazal. As a scholar of Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi, her doctoral research focuses on the reception of the 12th century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi and examines the formative role of Nizami's poetry in shaping the language of emotion in premodern North India. Besides her academic work, Aqsa is an essayist and a translator and writes for various international publications such as The World Literature Today, The Herald, and the Marginalia Review of Books. She is committed to sharing academic research with audiences across the globe and in this regard serves on the editorial board of The Marginalia Review of Books in Los Angeles. Currently, she teaches Urdu and Persian at the Department of Language Studies, and co-manages the The Global Past Research Initiative also at the University of Toronto Mississauga.