Lucien

Lucien is avoided like the plague. Although he looks harmless, with his bare feet and shabby clothes, when he’s around, someone always dies. He lives like a hunted animal, but he can’t be wounded or killed. Not even he understands exactly who he is. When he refuses to let an elderly woman who reminds him of his mother die, Lucien receives a mysterious invitation. It takes him to a world of light, where Caelesta reigns and death has no chance. But Caelesta is not without problems of her own: darkness is gathering in her palace.

Rani De Prée makes her debut with this impressive and mysterious tale. It reads like an enchanting dream; as a reader you simply have to surrender to the atmosphere and imagery. Answers to the many questions it raises seem time and again to be within reach, but they remain just beyond the reader’s grasp. Light and darkness, life and death are the central themes, as reflected in the use of intense colour. ‘Lucien’ is an original and ingeniously composed graphic novel about the closeness of death.