"Beautifully drawn and exquisitely written...confirms Winterhart as one of the most talented graphic novelists in the UK."
—Zadie Smith, on Driving Short Distances
Other People
Days of the Bagnold Summer & Driving Short Distances
Description
Days of the Bagnold Summer—soon to be a feature film!
Collecting the first two graphic novels from “one of the most talented graphic novelists in the UK” (Zadie Smith), Other People brings Joff Winterhart and his penchant for endearing, peculiar couples to the US for the first time.
Evocatively wrought and gorgeously illustrated, Other People collects Days of the Bagnold Summer and Driving Short Distances, first published in the UK to wide acclaim. In Bagnold Summer—which The Observer proclaimed “graphic novel of the year,” and which received a Costa Award nomination for best novel—a teenager spends a long summer with his mother, much to his disappointment. Capturing the dynamics of family and growing up, Winterhart captures the ennui, pathos, and affection of the mother-son relationship.
In Driving Short Distances—which Zadie Smith declared “created an unforgettable central player, Keith Nutt, who deserves to join Keith Talent in the short but potent list of great British literary Keiths; he is an unforgettable character, beautifully drawn and exquisitely written”—Sam needs a job and purpose, so begins a apprenticeship of sorts in the passenger side of Keith’s car. As Sam learns something about the self-styled big-man Keith, and the humility of everyday living, Winterhat’s pen turns ordinary life into a tableau poignant and comedic.
Reviews
"Masterpiece is an overused word in reviews and ordinarily I avoid it with much the same determination as Keith tries to avoid getting crumbs on his work trousers. In this case, however, it is the only one that will do. Winterhart has delivered a perfect book"
-- Rachel Cooke Observer on Driving Short Distances
"Few of us bother to visit the worlds Joff Winterhart describes in Other People....[and] one can hardly imagine the characters being interested in buying offbeat comic books, but if they were to pick this one up, they’d see themselves delicately reconstructed with a vibrant love and boundless empathy....Illustrated with a jangly and tender elegance that looks and feels like nothing else on the shelves. Even in the prose aisles, you’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of literary fiction as nuanced and beautiful as this."
—Vulture, on Other People
"With mournful ink-and-paint drawings and a talent for wordless suggestion, Joff Winterhart's comics create a sad and very British kind of underdog comedy... At heart, this perfectly observed comic is a story about recovery. It's also one of the best books of any kind that I've read all year."
-- Tim Martin Daily Telegraph
