Gabriel's behavior at Koby's bar mitzvah is mentioned as an example of the trouble in their relationship.

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. 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. 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. But Exit Wounds is about people in general, not just Israelis. 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.Ĭomics 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. 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. That description might lead you to believe Modan emphasizes mystery and intrigue, when that couldn't be further from the truth. 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.

Gabriel has recently disappeared, and Numi believes he might have been a victim of a recent bombing in a bus station. One day his life takes a strange turn when he meets Numi, a girl who has been dating Koby's estranged father Gabriel. 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. As it is, I can only add my voice to the chorus of those who sing the praises of this book. 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. Critics from Time to Entertainment Weekly to the St.

Exit wounds graphic novel