Brecht Evens

Pati just knows the rumours are true - there is a West Country panther. Now she and SImon are setting out to track it. They're confident of their survival skills, but as they are drawn deeper and deeper on to the moors, they have to ask - what will happen when they find it? Suggested level: primary.

When a moderately successful artist Peterson receives an invite to an arts festival, he decides to enliven what he perceives to be an amateur event by embarking on an group project with the other attendees. As Peterson's ambition and attempts at professionalism clash with the laid-back attitudes of the others on the project, their disagreements reach a breaking point.

"As night falls in the City of Belgium, three strangers in their late twenties-a most dangerous age-arrive at a popular restaurant. Jona is about to move away; he calls his wife, who's already settled in Berlin, before trying to make plans with friends for one last night on the town. No one bites-they're all busy or maybe they just don't want to party-but he's determined to make this night something to remember. Victoria is lively and energetic, but surrounded by friends and family who are buzzkills, always worrying about what is best for her. Rodolphe glumly considers his own misery and then suddenly snaps out of it, becoming the life of the party. The three careen through the city's nightlife spots and underbelly, chasing pleasure-or at least a few distractions from their daily lives. Each has a series of adventures that reveal them to be teetering on the edge between lucid dream and tooth-grinding nightmare. Vibrantly rendered in Brecht Evens's swirling watercolors, The City of Belgium continues the critically acclaimed streak of graphic novels he began with The Wrong Place, The Making Of, and Panther. Evens's darkly comic stories of characters on the verge of personal discovery-people about to become who they will be for the rest of their lives-have never been more beautifully conceived, more intricately planned than in his magical new graphic novel, The City of Belgium."--