The following is excerpted from The Contradictions (Drawn & Quarterly), a heartfelt fictionalized coming-of-age story by cartoonist Sophie Yanow.
About the book:
Sophie a young and queer and into feminist theory. She decides to study abroad, choosing Paris for no firm reason beyond liking French comics. Feeling a bit lonely and out of place, she’s desperate for community and a sense of belonging. She stumbles into what/who she’s looking for when she meets Zena. An anarchist student-activist committed to veganism and shoplifting, Zena offers Sophie a whole new political ideology that feels electric. Enamored–of Zena, of the idea of living more righteously–Sophie finds herself swept up in a whirlwind friendship that blows her even further from her rural California roots as they embark on a disastrous hitchhiking trip to Amsterdam and Berlin, full of couch surfing, drug tripping, and radical book fairs.
Excerpted with permission (Drawn & Quarterly)
