Always Never, by Jordi Lafebre
It's a love story in reverse. A platonic passion between two people. On the one side, there's Ana, a charismatic woman in her sixties, former mayor newly retired, a wife and a mom. A fighter with a big heart commanding respect. On the other side, there's Zeno, a confirmed bachelor, bookseller close to retiring and PhD student whose thesis took him forty years to write. A free spirit and traveller, as charming as he is mysterious.
Over the years, they have woven together an impossible and inexhaustible love. While going through the excuses that prevented it to happen, we rewind the clock on this romance, with all its twists and turns... Until its origins.
I bawled my eyes out when I reached the last page, it was amazing.
It was probably the most touching and beautiful love story I've read since... forever, maybe. The art style and the colors were what drew my attention first, and what was inside was just as beautiful as the cover.
The backward narration timewise was a really interesting way to tell Zeno and Ana's story because we know that something happened for them to lose touch and miss each other throughout the years, but we're left wondering what until we get there. It also means that some details come back at different points in time and we only understand where they come from later (the lilies were my favorite). It feels like we're being rewarded for paying attention to what's being said and drawn.
Anyways, much much love for this graphic novel, I'll borrow another one by Jordi Lafebre at the library as soon as possible.
French version under the cut
