BOOKLIST (STARRED) -- "They wanted to start a family, and now they've destroyed one," Gabriel laments. When that family-including his closest friends-all gathered for a surprise party for his seventy-fifth birthday, Gabriel was still a grandfather to beloved Qinaya, adopted by his son, Alain, and daughter-in-law, Lynette, from Arequipa, Peru, after a devastating 8.4 earthquake. Gabriel had initially been the most reticent about the adorable four-year-old, but he quickly became the most attached. And then the party ends in utter shock: Alain is arrested for kidnapping, and Qinaya is returned to Peru while the rest of the family falls apart. Gabriel holds on to two words in Aymaran, his granddaughter's native language: achachi (grandfather) and qinaya (cloud-ethereal and fleeting). Unmoored and bereft, Gabriel eventually travels from France to Peru, where he meets a Belgian stranger who is also seeking someone missing. Somehow, the unlikely pair will help each other find some semblance of healing. Zidrou's unforgettable narrative is made utterly spectacular in glorious full color by award-winning artist Monin. While realistically memorializing the bonds of family-"too much love"-Zidrou makes plain the fallacies of the great-white-savior complex especially associated with transnational adoption. Remarkably combining both raw expos? and familial affirmation, and supremely elevated by Monin's artwork, Zidrou's stupendous narrative-translated into English by Melloul, from its original French-is a graphic gift to Anglophone readers.
PUBLISHER WEEKLY -- Zidrou (
Emma G. Wildford) and Monin tenderly explore a French man's struggle to connect with his adopted Peruvian granddaughter. Gabriel, a retired butcher, is disgruntled when his son and daughter-in-law adopt Qinaya, a young native Aymaran girl they report was orphaned in an earthquake, introducing her to awkwardly cheering (and sotto voce xenophobic) relatives. ("Qinaya Van Oosterbeek! That's a hell of a mouthful!") In time, he warms to the child-until it is discovered that her biological family is alive and searching for her, and that his son and daughter-in-law kidnapped her. This shock disrupts the cozy fable of unlikely love built in the book's first half, which then becomes a more complicated and questioning examination of family ties, longing, and regret. Gabriel, at loose ends after his son's sudden arrest and incarceration, travels to Peru to see Qinaya, where he meets another tourist searching for his own daughter who was lost in the earthquake. Their expeditions are captured with gorgeous views and late-night ruminations on life choices. Monin's lovely, detailed art captures crumbling plazas, elderly wrinkles, and goofy office party favors alike with faithful care. While the premise raises thorny questions about transnational adoption, it satirizes adoption's "hero narrative" while never quite upending the notion that love can conquer all. But, this family drama takes unexpected directions with unusual candor and charm, and its scope in both art and storytelling will appeal to general readers as well as European comics fans.
(Feb.) WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS -- Adroitly homing in on small details to convey the bigger picture, the illustrator transports readers from Gabriel's suburban Belgian neighborhood to the colonial city of Lima, where, with the help of a private investigator, Gabriel finds Qinaya. Monin's panels are finely detailed but never too busy, colors rich but muted with dominant tones of yellow and blue, and with great attention given to light and shadow. Author Zidrou's plot unfolds almost entirely in dialogue, through which he masterfully conveys the psychologically intricate story. And Jeremy Melloul's translation not only renders the French into English, but also, with the help of Monin's artwork, makes some of the more obscure Belgian and Peruvian cultural references and practices intelligible for the American reader. Despite being called
The Adoption, this graphic novel is not really about adoption. It's about family and the love between parents and children. The climax, communicated in six pages of drawings with only two lines of dialogue - "It's good!" and "Yeah, it's good!" - brought tears to my eyes. So, in a way, it was as I feared:
The Adoption is a shameless tearjerker, exploiting tender emotions on the meaning of family and the ties that bind us together. But by making adoption the MacGuffin of the story, Zidrou and Monin got their adoption story just right.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL -- Gr 9 Up-When a devastating earthquake rips through the Peruvian city of Arequipa, the community is left reeling from massive damage and huge loss of life. A world away in France, a white family prepares to welcome four-year-old Qinaya, an Aymara earthquake orphan. Elderly, soon-to-be grandfather Gabriel doesn't know what he's going to do with a preschooler toddling about, especially since his experiences as a father were more miss than hit. But the little girl is on her way, and their world will be forever changed. Little Qinaya is wide-eyed and watchful; her adoptive parents are sensitive and eager to help her transition, encouraging her grandparents to spend as much time with her as possible. Watching Gabriel gruffly stumble into loving sweet, curious Qinaya is delightful. Assumptions are challenged and shocking revelations are uncovered, showing how complicated family relations can be beneath the surface. Zidrou and Monin have created a story that is more than heartwarming; it's heart-scorching and then heartrending. Though aimed at adults, teens who love crossover works will appreciate this one; Monin's ability to capture emotion in every facial expression is pure magic, and the use of vivid watercolor packs a poignant punch-even city backgrounds are infused with feeling. VERDICT An aching drama filled with family triumphs and tensions. For libraries with strong graphic novel collections.
