Mikel

Mikel lives with his wife and two children in Costur, an idyllic Spanish town surrounded by hills. He has a job selling confectionary, but Mikel is a dreamer, not a businessman, and money is tight. What’s more, the mundanity of small-town life is preventing him from fulfilling a life-long dream: to become a writer.

Seeking both drama and financial security, Mikel takes a job as a bodyguard. His family is soon uprooted to the Basque country, where Mikel is charged with protecting politicians from the armed separatist group ETA. It is a job that provides drama worthy of the page – but only at the cost of fear, uncertainty and family breakdown.

In Mikel, author Mark Bellido draws on his own experiences to create a powerful and provocative story about a man who risks everything in the pursuit of a dream.

Author Biography

Mark Bellido is a Belgian novelist and graphic novel writer. He spent four years protecting politicians from the Basque separatist group ETA, which provided the inspiration for Mikel.

Judith Vanistendael studied at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin and at the University of Ghent before studying Latin America as a postgraduate. She is also a graduate of the comic strip course at the Sint Lukas Art School in Brussels. Her graphic novels include When David Lost His Voice and the semi-autobiographical Dance by the Light of the Moon, which was nominated twice for the prestigious Angoulême Grand Prix. She lives in Brussels, Belgium.