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Rutu Modan

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Exit Wounds Kindle & comiXology

by Rutu Modan (Author, Artist) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 91 ratings

Part of: Exit Wounds

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Set in modern-day Tel Aviv, a young man, Koby Franco, receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier. Learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera, Koby reluctantly joins the soldier in searching for clues. His death would certainly explain his empty apartment and disconnected phone line. As Koby tries to unravel the mystery of his father's death, he finds himself piecing together not only the last few months of his father's life but his entire identity. With thin, precise lines and luscious watercolors, Rutu Modan creates a portrait of modern Israel, a place where sudden death mingles with the slow dissolution of family ties.

Exit Wounds is the North American graphic-novel debut from one of Israel's best-known cartoonists. Modan has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children's Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year by the Israel Ministry of Culture. She is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Tel Aviv-–based Modan gives American comics readers a sharp sense of Israeli life in this brilliant and moving graphic novel. The story follows Koby Franco, a young taxi driver and lost soul, as he searches for his missing father, a man who long ago left the family and may or may not have been killed in a suicide bomb attack. Assisting and prodding him is Nuni, a young soldier who was romantically involved with the missing father. Modan takes her characters across Israel and through a variety of different Israeli social strata as the search progresses. Along the way it becomes clear that Koby's father's identity is in flux—he leaves all those that he loves, but touches on everything it means to be an Israeli: family man, soldier, religious practitioner and, perhaps, victim. Modan is a deft and subtle storyteller, and her meditation on Israeli identity and the possibilities of love and trust (between father and son, woman and man) are finely wrought. Her loose, expressive drawing is both tremendously evocative and precise—always enhancing the plot. The stellar combination makes this one of the major graphic novels of 2007. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–This first graphic novel from an award-winning Israeli illustrator tells the story of Koby Franco, a 20-something cab driver working in Tel Aviv. Franco's everyday life screeches to a halt when he receives a phone call from a soldier claiming his estranged father was killed by a suicide bomber at a train station. He and the young woman enter into a journey that takes them through cemeteries, train stations, and Franco's father's disheveled apartment to determine whether the man is dead or alive. The black-and-white artwork, with its thin lines accented by simple watercolor brushstrokes, combines with precise dialogue to convey subtle and powerful emotions throughout the story. Limited depictions of sex, nudity, and violence both in the story and the pictures make this a work that confronts mature themes in an emotionally complex manner. Franco's journey draws a portrait of modern Israel, showing how people cope with the violence around them as they go about their day-to-day lives. Modan doesn't shy away from criticizing some of the attitudes the state of Israel holds, hinting that these exacerbate some of the problems with the Palestinians. But the core of the story rests on Franco dealing with not only all the anger he feels toward his father, but also with the realization that he still loves him and has much to learn from him. An accomplished and moving book.–Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0153PLCVW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Drawn and Quarterly (June 5, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 5, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 466072 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 172 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,517,738 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,776 in Romance Graphic Novels (Kindle Store)
- #2,278 in Romance Graphic Novels (Books)
- #3,009 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Graphic Novels

Customer Reviews:
4.3 91 ratings

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Rutu Modan

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Rutu Modan is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist. She is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, and former editor of the Hebrew edition of MAD magazine. She received a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for her book Exit Wounds in 2008. In 2012, she released Maya Makes a Mess with TOON Books, the first children’s book she both wrote and illustrated.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

91 global ratings

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Allan R. Chalmbert

Wonderful book

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2010

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This book draws you in and does not let you go until you are finished. I would recommend this to anyone, even if they are not into graphic novels. The artwork and story are both strong enough to stand on their own.

One person found this helpful

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KellyMO

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2015

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Amazing book! It has a great story line to it and I've enjoyed the book since day 1.

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Jordan

Wonderful and Touching

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2007

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I picked this book up from a local comic expo after hearing a lot of praise. The art didn't immediately grab me but the first few pages I read did. The writing is quite excellent for someone who isn't strictly a writer.

The book is basically about the main character coming to terms with his relationship with his father. It's also a sort of coming-of-age tale (then again, what graphic novel these days isn't?). It stands out from the pack due to its tightly plotted story, realistic dialogue, excellent pacing, and perfectly simple yet expressive artwork. The only reason I docked it a star was for the rushed and somewhat cliche ending. Aside from that, this book is a treasure.

Exit Wounds is definitely worth a purchase and has a deserving spot next to Watchmen, Blankets, and Maus.

2 people found this helpful

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SKClimacus

Nice Art, Boring Story

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015

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I would buy this for the art, but skip it for the story.

The art is clear-line style, somewhat naive, but with evocative coloring and good architectural details.

The story is about an angry 30 something who is looking for his absentee father, and suspects he may have been killed in a bombing. So he, and his father's mistress, try to track him down by interviewing people who survived the bombing. Think of it as a really boring mystery.

2 people found this helpful

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gammyjill

First time I'd read a graphic novel...

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2007

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The editorial descriptions really do this beautiful book more justice than I can. It is more than a novel and more than artwork, a wonderful combination of the two on a very searing subject. Buy it, read it.

2 people found this helpful

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Maya G.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2015

Thank you!

One of the best GNs of 2007

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2008

Critics from Time to Entertainment Weekly to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have lauded Rutu Modan's Exit Wounds as one of the best (if not THE best) graphic novels of 2007, and had I read it a few weeks earlier, it would surely have ended up on my list of best comics of the year as well. As it is, I can only add my voice to the chorus of those who sing the praises of this book.

Set in present-day Israel, the book's central character is Koby, a young man who lives with his aunt and uncle while trying to scrape by on the meager wages he earns as a cab driver. One day his life takes a strange turn when he meets Numi, a girl who has been dating Koby's estranged father Gabriel. Gabriel has recently disappeared, and Numi believes he might have been a victim of a recent bombing in a bus station. Her request for Koby's help in identifying the body turns into a quest of sorts, as the two work to piece together the clues of what happened to Gabriel.

That description might lead you to believe Modan emphasizes mystery and intrigue, when that couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, Exit Wounds is less about finding out what happened to Gabriel than it is a character piece about two complete strangers linked by their relationships to the same man. From their first meeting, Koby and Numi are at odds, clashing over their different ideas of how to handle the situation, and this conflict between them is a direct result of how they connected, or failed to connect, with Gabriel himself.

Comics such as Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis or the works of Joe Sacco have been designed to give readers an insight into another culture, and from that summary you might be fooled into thinking that this book's purpose is similarly informative. But Exit Wounds is about people in general, not just Israelis. The book is more universal because it doesn't emphasize the details of the plot or setting and instead focuses on the strained relationship between Gabriel and Koby, between a father and son, which anyone can relate to no matter their nationality.

Yet in a way, the book does subtly show the Israeli experience; it treats the setting as a background element that not only drives the plot but also impacts the behavior of the characters. Koby meets Numi while she's serving her mandatory service in the army, and her indecision about what to do next with her life is a driving force for her character. Gabriel's behavior at Koby's bar mitzvah is mentioned as an example of the trouble in their relationship. From the location of the unidentified victim's burial plot to the nonchalance with which several characters treat the news of the bombing itself, every aspect of this story is affected by Israeli life in some way, like Israel is the elephant in the room. No one discusses Israel directly but everyone feels the influence of this country in every aspect of their lives.

Like many other aspects of Exit Wounds, the art too is deceptive. Modan's drawing style is very European, at times reminiscent of Herge's Tintin, and at first glance she tricks the reader into thinking there is very little to the art. People's faces are the simplest arrangements of dots and lines you can imagine, but the beauty of Modan's artwork is how expressive she makes those lines become. The emotions they show are palpable, especially the varied shades of anger that Koby expresses. In one panel he might merely be feeling mild annoyance and in the next outrage, yet the nuances of Modan's art illustrate the differences in his moods perfectly.

Exit Wounds has all the technical elements an excellent comic should contain: art that is minimalist yet incredibly expressive, colors which seem to adjust from muted to vibrant with the tone of the scenes, and panel layouts that guide the reader through the story at a perfect pace without ever feeling the need to overly spell things out. Beyond all that is a great story, a gripping read that holds your interest through a twisting plot, an intriguing setting, and subtle character development. All of those details add up to a truly brilliant graphic novel that deserves all the praise it has received.

15 people found this helpful

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Scott Baker

An odd and engaging love story

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2009

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A mature and insightful love story amidst the strange and sometimes crazy world of Israel. A tour of the protagonist's (one hesitates to call this young curmudgeon a 'hero') past relationship with his father, and of what the heart needs vs. the head (or the 'little head'). The art is good, though not great, but conveys the emotions and actions of the characters well.

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Top reviews from other countries

Swaroop J.

A 'graphic novel' gem

Reviewed in India on June 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

The story is told in a mellow vibe, so for people expecting intensity out of a very sensitive subject this is not it. But if you are ready to read it with a clear mind, and let Modan set the pace, this is brilliant. Characters are so well defined in the art than the story, but the paychological development of the characters and the story itself is so appreciative its a 'graphic novel' gem 👍🏻

Peebee

Beautiful book by Drawn & Quarterly

Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2014

Verified Purchase

Beautiful book by Montreal's publisher Drawn & Quarterly.

Even they are out of stock on it, and would sell at a higher price.

Haven't read it yet, but the book is a beauty.

The author just won a big prize at Angoulême for The Property, my other purchase.

** Edit: read it in one sitting, this book is great, I won't spoil it for you but great great story and colors.

Paul Morse

Buy this now, if you are looking at it, you'll love it

Reviewed in Canada on November 5, 2015

Verified Purchase

Amazing read, high quality hardcover. Emotional and clearly lived.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in India on July 11, 2016

Verified Purchase

Awesome

vogon

For those that like the sentimental

Reviewed in India on September 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

It's a bit too sentimental for my taste and I didn't particularly like it. The art is quite good, even though few people thought of it otherwise, it was just fine and had a style which lent to the story being told.
Another fine deal from Amazon though.

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