A substantive graphic novel set in a four-year period beginning in 1945 follows the fate of a single family and those connected to them as Palestine and Jerusalem are on the edge of sweeping changes. A family feud of Biblical proportion is part of the backdrop, and the tension and fighting within the family mirrors the tension and fighting in Palestine at the time. Through the older sons, various aspects of activism and politics in Jerusalem at this time play out: Avraham has just returned from serving with the British in World War II and joins the Communists, where his voice is united with other Palestinians-Jews, Arabs, and Christians-demanding economic justice. David takes his turn going off to war once Avraham returns, and eventually a young Italian Jewish woman shows up at the door: his pregnant wife, who has seen things she can't talk of in Europe. Elias is secretly involved with the Zionist movement, working toward establishing an independent Jewish state. The United Nations vote to partition Palestine is shown in a breathless series of pages here as the characters who've become familiar-Jewish and Arab-listen to nations casting their vote. In the aftermath, once peaceful relationships between Jews and Arabs dissolve into a war that is awful on all sides, leading to an ending that is tragic and feels unfinished, suggesting the possibility of a sequel. (Age 16 and older)

Jerusalem is a sweeping, epic graphic novel that follows a single family—three generations and fifteen very different people—as they are swept up in chaos, war, and nation-making from 1940-1948. Faith, family, and politics are the heady mix that fuel this ambitious, cinematic graphic novel.

With Jerusalem, author-filmmaker Boaz Yakin turns his finely-honed storytelling skills to a topic near to his heart: Yakin's family lived in Palestine during this period and was caught up in the turmoil of war just as his characters are. This is a personal work, but it is not a book with a political ax to grind. Rather, this comic seeks to tell the stories of a huge cast of memorable characters as they wrestle with a time when nothing was clear and no path was smooth.