Una aclamada novela gráfica de no ficción sobre las "mujeres de
consuelo" asiáticas en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Hierba es la historia real de una superviviente: Lee Ok-Sun, una joven
coreana que durante la Guerra del Pacífico fue explotada como «mujer de
consuelo», el eufemismo utilizado por el ejército imperial japonés para
referirse a sus esclavas sexuales. A día de hoy, aquel sigue siendo uno
de los capítulos más oscuros del siglo XX. Partiendo de las entrevistas
que mantuvo con Lee Ok-Sun en una residencia de ancianos, la autora ha
narrado el devenir de su infancia en un ambiente extremadamente humilde,
vendida sucesivamente a varias familias adoptivas, hasta que llegó la
ocupación japonesa y en 1942 fue trasladada a la fuerza a una base aérea
en China.
CÓMIC DEL AÑO para The New York Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times,
Library Journal.
GANADOR DE LOS PREMIOS: Harvey Award, Krause Essay Prize, Cartoonist
Studio Prize, Big Other Book Award, YALSA Book Award, Prix Bulles
dHumanité.
FINALISTA DE LOS PREMIOS: Eisner Award, Believer Book Award, LA Times
Book Prize, Ringo Award.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Appeared on best of the year lists from The New York Times, The
Guardian, and more! Winner of The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print
Comic of the Year!
Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a
Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the
Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War―a disputed chapter in
twentieth-century Asian history.
Beginning in Lee's childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a
child's vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the
Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for
ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee's strength in
overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted
in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields
and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors
of Lee's memories.
The cartoonist Gendry-Kim's interviews with Lee become an integral part
of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction
graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee's wartime
suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes
personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace.
