On sale date: January 18, 2013
A shojo classic in English for the first time.
The setting: A boys' boarding school in Germany, sometime in the latter 20th Century. Fourteen year-old Thomas Werner falls from a lonely pedestrian overpass to his death immediately after sending a single, brief letter to a schoolmate:
To Juli, one last time
This is my love
This is the sound of my heart
Surely you must understand
Thus begins the legendary and enigmatic Heart of Thomas, by Moto Hagio. Inspired by Jean Delannoy's 1964 film, Les Amitiés Particulières, The Heart of Thomas was nearly cancelled early in its serialization, in 1974, until Hagio's first trade paperback, The Poe Clan, Volume 1, sold out in a single day, giving her new series a new lease on life. The result was a story more complex, less accessible, and yet so compelling it can be found near or at the top of any list of classic shojo manga. Translated by manga scholar Rachel Thorn and packaged with the same loving attention to detail as Hagio's Eisner Award nominated A Drunken Dream, The Heart of Thomas is one of the most eagerly awaited manga translations of the decade.
Praise
"Moto Hagio is a genius and leader in the style of shojo manga (comics for women readers). [...] The stories aren't about make-up and kitties, though. They're actually deep, complicated, and often deal with family relationships." — Giant Robot
"Hagio Moto remains one of the most criminally undertranslated mangaka to have barely made an impression on the English-language manga market. It is criminal because of the profundity of her impact on the art form in Japan as it hit a crucial development phase in the 1970s. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is... a down payment on the exploration of that legacy as it collects a number of short pieces that hint at the span and depth of her work..." — World Literature Today
Specs
- Pages
- 528
- Format
- Hardback
- Color
- Black and white.
- Dimensions
- 6.9" × 9.6"
- ISBN-13
- 9781606995518