Harlem

Overview

Harlem, 1931. In the heart of the Great Depression, invention is the mother of necessity to make ends meet.Stéphanie St. Clair, known as ‘Queenie’, had already understood this when she landed in New York almost twenty years before. Inventiveness when you are a woman and you are black is much more than a necessity. It's a question of survival.In a few years, this young immigrant West Indian servant freed herself from the weight of ancestral servitude. Even better, she created her own American dream: the underground Harlem numbers game.Hers is an ascent that makes people cringe, both with the local authorities and the white mafia. Dutch Schultz, aka. the Dutchman, an unscrupulous mafioso, intends to take control of the kingdom of the "Frenchy." But that's without taking into account the determination and impetuosity of Queenie, whose heavy past continues to guide her steps...After the critically acclaimed Giant and Bootblack, Mikaël takes us to the Harlem of the prohibition for the final chapter of his New York triptych in sumptuous chiaroscuro, to meet a woman as strong as she is enigmatic.

Reviews

"Mikaël’s artwork throughout this novel does an excellent job of portraying hopping jazz club or the cold winter streets of New York."—San Francisco Book Review

"Everything about this stylish drama is potently mythic and tragically foredoomed in a sincerely Shakespearean manner as it completes the auteur’s epic and ambitious New York Trilogy." —Now Read This!

HARLEM by Mikaël won a MoCCA Festival Award of Excellence.

"Harlem is a work of quiet confidence from an artist who has clearly come into his own."—Broken Frontier

"Extraordinary and highly recommended"—Midwest Book Review

"Harlem is the real deal, a monumental drama." —The Slings and Arrows

Author Biography

An autodidact, French artist Mikael, adoptive of French Canada, has illustrated award winning children’s books and created graphic novels since 2001. Among his awards are 2 Grand Prizes of the City of Quebec (2015, 2016) and a special mention of the jury for youth at Ouessant, France. Since 2006 he has turned to adult comics, some in collaboration with other writers and artists. He is the author of the highly acclaimed 'Giant.'