A MUST READ for this moment - BERLIN by Jason Lutes

March 27, 2020

A MUST READ for this moment - BERLIN by Jason Lutes

Berlin by Jason Lutes is a title we particularly recommend right now, if you have yet to read it. Although it is chronicling the rise of fascism in Berlin leading up to WWII, it is a tremendously engrossing and nessiary read to understanding turbulent times. It took Lutes 25 years to write.



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When Berlin was published in the fall of 2018, Alexander Chee wrote, 

"A Watershed achievement - Berlin charted new territory for the graphic novel and comics at the same time, at once a story about artists trying to make art during the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and a bildungsroman of the first order. This landmark collection returns this story to us now when we need examples of how to stay human to each other in the face of a politics that turns friends into enemies - a newly necessary book." 

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Lutes could not have predicted that at the time of publication we would be in a time of rising right wing nationalism, disinformation, and a fraying media landscape. Nor could he have predicted that in 2020 there would be widespread economic and social disruption. In sum, this book is an even more necessary today to more deeply understand what lead to the rise of fascism in Weimar era Germany. It is even more necessary to read at a time when we are entering uncertain times, in a time when we need to maintain the strength of our communities and the strength of our humanity. 



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So many people I know who have read Berlin have been captivated by this 550 page tome & that act of being engrossed in this story is another reason why right now is the perfect time to read it. 


Find out more about Berlin here on NPR, in the New York Times here and in The Comics Journal

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Berlin

Jason Lutes

Twenty years in the making, this sweeping masterpiece charts Berlin through the rise of Nazism During the past two decades, Jason Lutes has quietly...

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