Arsene Schrauwen

In 1947, the author’s grandfather, Arsene Schrauwen, travelled across the ocean to a mysterious, dangerous jungle colony at the behest of his cousin. Together they would build something deemed impossible: a modern utopia in the wilderness – but not before Arsene falls in love with his cousin’s wife, Marieke. Whether delirious from love or a fever-inducing jungle virus, Arsene’s loosening grip on reality is mirrored by the graphic novel reader’s uncertainty of what is imagined or real by Arsene. This first full-length graphic novel from the critically acclaimed Olivier Schrauwen is an engrossing, sometimes funny, slightly surreal and often beautiful narrative. Originally released in 2014, Arsene Schrauwen heralded the then largely-unknown-to-English readers Olivier Schrauwen as a major voice in international comics – a reputation that has only gained momentum over the ensuing decade with releases like 2024’s Sunday.

Author Biography

Olivier Schrauwen was born in Belgium in 1977 and studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, and comics at ESA Saint-Luc in Brussels. He currently lives in Berlin. He is the author of the books The Man Who Grew His Beard (2011), Arsène Schrauwen (2014), Parallel Lives (2018), and Sunday (2024).