Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Habibi
 
See larger image
 

Habibi [Hardcover]

Craig Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 40.00
Price: CDN$ 25.08 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: CDN$ 14.92 (37%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Monday, May 28? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover CDN $25.08  

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Blankets (New Hardcover Edition) CDN$ 26.30

Habibi + Blankets (New Hardcover Edition)
Price For Both: CDN$ 51.38

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Habibi

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

  • Blankets (New Hardcover Edition)

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product Details


Product Description

Review

“The character depth, plot complexity, and storytelling in this lyrical, sexual, and scholarly epic would make any novelist proud…Thompson strings compositions that are often more tapestry than comics and that balance graphic design, illumination, calligraphy, and cartooning in steady alignment. It is unfair to expect two masterpieces in a row from anyone, but here Thompson sits securely in that rarefied air.” –Booklist, starred review

“A lushly epic love story that's both inspiring and heartbreaking…In addition to richly detailed story panels, the gorgeous Arabic ornamental calligraphy makes each page an individual work of art. A dense, swirling dervish of a tale…this will be the most talked about graphic novel of the fall.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review   

“The exquisite beauty and deep magic of this Arabian Nights-style love story cannot be overstated...Habibi is certain to join the ranks of graphic novels that expand our understanding of not only the genre but also the world it describes.” –Library Journal, starred review 

Habibi lifts the bar of graphic storytelling to new heights, both by the intricate, dramatic density and breathtaking scholar­ship of Thompson’s panels and by the sheer scale and decorative beauty of his flowing, roiling, protean style. Thompson is the Charles Dickens of the genre, able to capture all the scary, heartbreaking, brave, uplifting details of his characters’ fates while orchestrating the big-picture machinations that connect them to the lives and times of his readers…Habibi is a masterpiece that surely is one of a kind.” –Elle Magazine   
 
“A graphic novel that is sure to attract attention…A mature—in all its meanings—glimpse into a world few Westerners are at home with, and Thompson is respectful throughout.” -Kirkus

“Exquisite…HABIBI is a remarkable feat of research, care, and black ink, and a reminder that all "People of the book," despite the division of their individual traditions, share a mosaic of stories.” –Zadie Smith, Harper’s Magazine

Habibi has classic written all over it. It’s a modern literary triumph, a book so broad and magical in its scope, only a master could pull it off. This is no ordinary comic, it is a complete work of art. Beautiful, thought provoking, both timeless and of its time…An awe-inspiring read you can’t afford to miss” –Grovel, graphic novel reviews    
 
“Easily the best graphic novel of the year, and probably the decade…Thompson’s line work here is beyond brilliant, combining myriad styles and capturing the rich historical legacy of the cultural and religious volumes that inspired it. This is a work that truly changes the game and sets a new standard for all the graphic novels that follow it.” –GraphicNovelReporter.com

"Craig Thompson's new graphic novel, Habibi, is a masterpiece. This isn't an opinion. This book is a gorgeous object; to make it, Thompson apparently covered himself in honey and rolled around in a thousand years of Arabic calligraphy and Islamic art, and the result is breathtaking.” -The Boston Phoenix

“Erotic, grotesque, and profoundly moving…I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this, and I expect I’ll be thinking about it for a long, long time.” –Boing Boing

“Layered, daring, and brilliantly told—an intricate story of love, religion, desire, survival, poverty, hope. It’s drenched in metaphor and rich with double meanings. Yet for all it takes on, Habibi feels light on its feet; throughout, we feel Thompson reveling in his skills as a writer and artist. Its exuberance, even in its darkest moments, feels somehow celebratory. I’m not sure that I’ve read a better graphic novel…Thompson’s own work is manically elaborate and ingeniously laid out; he’s become expert at moving the eye through exploding, dexterous panels.” –The Millions 
 
“Mere words—or at least my mere words—seemed not enough to even try to convey just how intricate and ornate, lush and seductive, arabesque and sometimes knowingly grotesque this artistic epic is…a visual masterpiece.” –Comic Riffs, Washington Post blog

“Like the elegantly dense mosaic patterns that Thompson fills the background of his pages with, Habibi is a book that weaves isolated shapes into an overpowering tableaux, its pieces carefully fit together and subtly repeated until a gorgeous unity emerges.” –National Post

“Relentlessly virtuosic... It is a tribute to Thompson's skill as a cartoonist that the transition from an old fashioned Orient to modern Babylon leaves few visual seams." –New York Times Book Review

“While the storytelling is gripping, surprising, and emotionally and intellectually hard-hitting, it almost takes a back seat to the artwork that is alternately robust and fragile. Thompson's deft, assured lines have never been more delicately and profoundly inked than here…This book is a monument of intelligent, vibrant design, all in service to the story.” –Barnes and Noble review

“Brilliantly imagined…celebrates the power of the artist to tell a story with ink teased into magisterial letters and visual images.” –Newsweek  
 
“Thompson makes a good third of the other illustrators out there look like total chumps. Each page is carefully designed with recurring motifs–that draw from sources like the Qur’an and other storytelling traditions–to add multiple layers of meaning to every moment. Scenes of city life and vast endless oceans of sand are drawn with such attention to detail that you’ll be staggered imagining a human being crafting the images with human hands and commonly available tools…It’s a story told with technical precision and real, honest-to-gosh passion, and if you cry at the end it won’t be because you’ve been successfully manipulated–it’ll be because this world and these characters have come to mean something to you, and you’ll miss them once you reach the final page.” –Richmond News 

 “If you haven’t been exposed to the work of Craig Thompson yet, you have been deprived of a true aesthetic experience…To say the work is visually stunning is an understatement. Thompson’s art is simple black and white inking, yet his ink strokes convey a sense of live movement as if you’re watching the characters move across the page…don’t dismiss Habibi as a book of pretty pictures. While the artwork is incredible, Craig Thompson’s Habibi is a book that will affect your heart.” –Wit and Fancy blog site
 
“Artistically, it's the most gorgeous book I read this year, with compositions and layouts weaving together effortlessly and with endless depth and detail…an outrageous success, and worth every bit of time Thompson spent on it. As great as this year was in comics, Habibi might have been the best thing I read in all of comics all year, and it makes me all the more excited to see what Thompson will be up to next.” –MultiversityComics.com, “Best Graphic Novel of the 2011”

“The intricacy of patterns and motifs (both visible and metaphorical) hold the text together and astound in their complexity. In the world of Habibi, art is never divorced from meaning; drawings are symbolic verse, words twisted into new shapes…Habibi is about the power of words to carry and envelop us, and in Thompson’s beautifully written novel, the reader experiences a similar magic.” –ALARM Press

Habibi is a confident, powerfully drawn graphic novel, telling its tale with passion, humor and an endless understanding of the human condition…A graphic novel masterpiece that explores what it means to be human through religious story, slavery, prostitution and personal and societal struggles within the industrial and third worlds.” –Shelf Awareness, starred review
 
A lush commentary on love and lust, wealth and want, religion and storytelling…the power in this tale lies in human passion, sometimes cruel and sometimes sweet, combined with its geometric precision and deep sense of the sacred.” –Harvard Crimson
 
“Lushly illustrated, at times unbearably sad and unexpectedly erotic.” –Paste Magazine

“To read Habibi is to sink into the sensuous arabesque patterns that decorate its pages. Steeped in the imagery and storytelling traditions of the Muslim world, this densely layered love story is as grand and sustained a performance as any cartoonist has published…Thompson’s fluid, evocative artwork is pretty miraculous too.” –Time Magazine 
 
“Habibi is like a big, rousing, unabashedly tear-jerking Dumas novel, with fascinatingly intricate designs and fabulous tales on almost every page.” –Salon
 
“It’s impossible to read this book and not walk away with a deeper, more profound understanding or appreciation for not both Arab culture and for the subtle and varied ways in which populations portrayed as enemies are in fact alike. Thanks to Thompson’s deft storytelling, ‘Habibi’s’ seemingly daunting 700-plus pages can go by in a breeze; you won’t want them to, though, b...

Book Description

From the internationally acclaimed author of Blankets (“A triumph for the genre.”Library Journal), a highly anticipated new graphic novel.
 
Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.
 
At once contemporary and timeless, Habibi gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and moving story, Nov 13 2011
By 
Mark Young (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Habibi (Hardcover)
Coming from the author of "Blankets," the intimate story of a first love, this sprawling, 700 page epic of the Arabian desert was an unexpected departure. And it wasn't subject matter that would normally draw me in, either. But this graphic novel of a love between two child slaves left me gobsmacked. It is a truly stunning artistic achievement as well as a brilliant and moving story.

This love story spans years and is set down amidst an exploration of religion, culture and language without it feeling overly didactic or at all pedantic. A combination of imagery, calligraphy, symbology and simply great characters "drawn" with a sure hand. Eisner, Harvey, Ignatz... here comes Craig Thompson again. He is on fire in this master work of art, of literature and of pure story. Can't recommend highly enough.

Mild spoiler warning: the book tricked me with its opening into thinking it was a historical piece, harkening back to the days of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves or Prince of Persia. It proved to be a modern context, reflective of our contemporary social and environmental condition. Quite a reversal of expectations, which comes on the reader gradually.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5.0 out of 5 stars A work of art., Jan 14 2012
By 
Ken McCaskill (Rossland, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Habibi (Hardcover)
Fascinating. This is the first graphic novel I have read and I am stunned by the research that went into this work. A sometimes dreamy but unblinking mix of history and contemporary issues surround the story line, it was one of those books that you don't want to put down.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.4 out of 5 stars (75 customer reviews)

69 of 76 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Brutal, Poetic, Prophetic, Sep 23 2011
By J. WOFFORD "wofford" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Habibi (Hardcover)
Habibi is a fable of exploitation and the cruelty of the strong toward the weak. It is a love story, though the the kind of love it celebrates--maternal, platonic, erotic--remains elusive throughout. It is also a sermon complete with hell-fire and brimstone and strident pleading about the dangers of the sin of waste. Most of all it is prophecy dressed in poetry's clothing--an artful shriek announcing of the end of the world.

All of this lovely fable-telling and street-preaching comes packaged in a graphic novel. And what a novel! And how graphic! Author and artist Craig Thompson gives us pages filled with toil, tears, and blood--whether his own or someone else's is hard to say. The book is beautiful, yes. Every dot, every line tells of human longing and agony. Every panel draws your eye, delights, repulses, demands--requires your attention. Many of the pages, with their intricate arabesque patterns, must have taken endless hours for Thompson to craft. No wonder that nine years have passed since Thompson's last major work, Blankets. The drawings in Habibi are a gift, bought at a price, and it does seem a sin to refuse them.

The story, too, is masterfully crafted. It tells of two urchins, Dodola and Zam, who find each other in the mire of the Arab slave trade. Dodola survives by prostitution and wit, nurturing and protecting Zam until he, too, begins to yearn for her body. Their journey through the filth of a decaying world, through magic and old lore, and through their own damaged souls proves constantly engrossing.

Thompson is not always the most elegant of writers. Sometimes the voice of the preacher oppresses Dodola's more underspoken narration. "Zam was soothed by stories," she explains early in the book. "He didn't realize the precipitation was acid rain," the narrator continues in an apparent non-sequitur, and now Dodola's voice has been lost. Thompson's urge to make explicit the symbolism between his characters' world and our own sometimes gets the better of him. "When the world is on its last breath," Dodola opines, "the masses will need something to distract them from the destruction--and my body will still be a commodity." Are these really the thoughts of an isolated sex-slave hidden away in an almost medieval modern Arabia? These narrative oversteps betray a lack of faith in either the story or the reader to draw the connections without commentary.

Fortunately these oversteps are few, and the tale is always compelling even at those moments when the text is not. Thompson has given us the finest graphic novel of the past decade, and I will not be surprised, fifty years from now, to see it well-established in the literary harem of university English courses. (I don't think it will be studied in high schools--hardly a page passes without nudity or brutality.) Whether or not this book helps move the world to conviction and repentance, it will endure as a work of art. Habibi is that rare thing--that most literary of things--a pleasure that is also good for you.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece for mature readers, Sep 25 2011
By Kevin Taylor - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Habibi (Hardcover)
Craig Thompson's Blankets is one of my all time favorite novels, so it is not surprising that I was waiting in anticipation for this book, and it does not disappoint.

If Blankets was a comforting quilt constructed from unrequited love and childhood innocence then Habibi is a tapestry; exotic, richly decorated and replete with signs and symbols easily understood but not always fully comprehended. It is also immense, even though it is only 100 pages or so lengthier than blankets the entire size and scope of the story seems exponentially larger.

It is a MATURE graphic novel in that it deals with themes, which would be difficult to grapple in any medium, such as abandonment, sexual slavery, prejudice etc but always with a sensitivity and understanding which belies the notion that graphic novels are simply long-form comics. The usual poor reviews on account of the sex, violence and nudity are, I'm sure, inevitable. There is sex, violence and nudity but it is not gratuitous, it is employed to advance the story or develop the characters- still if you have overtly susceptible sensibilities then perhaps this book should be avoided.

The plot is complex and meandering and not succinctly summarized, in tone it has much in common with the magical-realism form of writing- it is compelling and it is likely that, despite the length of the story, most readers will finish the book in only a few days.

It also makes a great argument for the printed form; when you hold it in your hands you feel like you are holding an extraordinary tome, it is beautifully bound with tasteful gold lettering and the tactile sensation of turning these ornately decorated pages is not something which could be easily approximated in the digital format

68 of 88 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars A Waste...., Oct 9 2011
By Syed Aman Qadri - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Habibi (Hardcover)
All of the reviews here are glowing about the artwork in the book, and I fully second this commendation, especially for those who are not familiar with Arabic calligraphy. Thompson has clearly studied his calligraphy thoroughly and he weaves a beautifully-illustrated tale that doesn't falter in quality when moving from barren landscape to medieval middle east to sprawling urban. He also has clearly done his homework when it comes to Islam and Arab culture making allusion to appropriate Islamic cognates of Jewish or Christian stories or historical events. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what the point was, other than to show off his newly accumulated knowledge. Many of the stories are referenced at haphazard times, and seem forced as story-movers and context-givers. Indeed, their very reference seems a contrived attempt to indulge the stereotype of the oral tradition in the Middle East and enhance the ethnic flavor of the book. Thompson also makes copious use of Arabian Night-sensuality to move the story forward, a feature that isn't presented in any novel fashion and feels more than a little trite. The love story between Dodola and Zam, the two main characters, is well-done and touching, even if spruced up too gaudily with Arab/Islamic dressing. I was excited when I initially heard of this book, hoping it to be a great modern retelling of some Arabian Night stories. However, in the end, I think Thompson tries to do too much, melding religious mythology, various middle-east history, a sweeping love story, and a reflection on industry in one story and the result ends up being a drawn-out mixed bag.
 Go to Amazon.com to see all 75 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges