Le Havre #2

Set against the brooding skyline of Le Havre, this 2017 volume from Éditions Petit à Petit brings together a striking cast of characters — a WWI-era soldier, a determined nurse, and a man in a fedora looming large above the city, while below, a red-clad figure cradles a child amid a crowd pressing forward through rain-slicked streets. The subtitle Des Années Sombres aux Géants (From the Dark Years to the Giants) promises an ambitious sweep through the port city's layered history, and the cover's atmospheric tension makes that ambition immediately felt. A compelling entry for anyone drawn to French historical graphic novels rooted in a specific place and its people.