The Islands Where We Left Our Ancestors (Joshua Santospirito, Scribe)

Joshua Santospirito’s latest graphic-novel memoir, The Islands Where We Left Our Ancestors, begins with a ferry trip from Palermo to the Aeolian Islands. Santospirito is returning to the islands to reconnect with his grandfather’s birthplace and ‘go hunting for stories’ about the locales he finds himself in and the lives of his ancestors. His parents are in tow, and the book is structured around visits to each of the seven islands in the archipelago. Early in the book, in a fantastical twist, he meets Aeolus, that figure of Greek myth who encountered Odysseus and gifted him the winds. Aeolus adds mischievousness and levity to the book as he periodically accompanies Santospirito to some of the islands, drinking plenty of his beer along the way. Santospirito’s art is always playful and fluid, and this is felt most keenly when considering his varied page layouts. He doesn’t constrain himself to a set number of panels, changing their position from page to page, and experimenting with the panel shapes themselves—interspersing traditional rectangles with huge watercolour ovals and semicircles to great effect. Perhaps the most striking thing about the book is its quietly elegant structure, which weaves together Santospirito’s episodic and digressive journeys to each of the seven islands into a moving, impactful whole. It’s a book that interrogates memory, lineage and cultural identity to great effect. Fans of low-key graphic memoirists like Mandy Ord or John Porcellino will find a lot to enjoy here.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Jack Rowland is a disabled writer, critic and editor living on Dja Dja Wurrung land. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews