Tongues, Volume 1 - (Pantheon Graphic Library) by Anders Nilsen (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Set in a version of modern Central Asia, Tongues is a retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus. It follows the captive god's friendship with the eagle who carries out his daily sentence of torture and chronicles his pursuit of revenge on the god that has imprisoned him. Prometheus's story is entwined with that of an East African orphan on an errand of murder, and a young man with a teddy bear strapped to his back, wandering aimlessly into catastrophe."--

Book Synopsis

From the three-time Igantz award-winning artist and author of Big Questions comes a fascinating graphic novel retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus

"An extraordinary reinvention of some of our oldest stories. Nilsen brings these old gods to an electrifying new life, and gives us a new sense of humanity as well."--Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"Mind-bendingly good. It's up there with Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan." --Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Set in a version of modern Central Asia, Tongues is a retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus. It follows the captive god's friendship with the eagle who carries out his daily sentence of torture and chronicles his pursuit of revenge on the god that has imprisoned him.

Prometheus's story is entwined with that of an East African orphan on an errand of murder, and a young man with a teddy bear strapped to his back, wandering aimlessly into catastrophe (a character readers may recognize from Nilsen's Dogs and Water). The story is set against the backdrop of tensions between rival groups in an oil-rich wilderness.

Tongues is both an adventure story and a meditation on human nature in our present fraught, historical moment.

Review Quotes

"Tongues is an extraordinary reinvention of some of our oldest stories. Nilsen brings these old gods to an electrifying new life, and gives us a new sense of humanity as well, drilling into what we forgot to be afraid of and why we would have made ourselves forget. And the art of comics is reinvented as well in the process. It's as if to tell this story, Nilsen had to remake everything he knew."
--Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"Superb graphic art meets an exceedingly odd tale, and to wonderful ends."
--Kirkus, starred review

"With exhilarating imagination, Nilsen charges headlong at big themes of responsibility, fate, mortality, transcendence, and the natural order. The results are stunning."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Tongues is absolutely astonishing. A psychedelic collision between our most degraded contemporary realities and some of the oldest mythologies known to our species, written with a granular insight into both, drawn with beautiful savagery in a style that at times recalls Moebius but is utterly Nilsen's own. Some passages made me cry, and I didn't want the story to end. This book feels momentous."
--Leela Corman, author of Victory Parade

"#$&@ing amazing!"
--Charles Burns, author of Black Hole

"A genuinely mind-blowing achievement. I think Tongues is a landmark book not only in the history of the graphic novel, but in the history of mythic storytelling. A dazzlingly innovative feat which surprises and delights on every page, across the epic whole and in every strange detail. My favorite comic by a living artist."
--Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

"Mind-bendingly good. It's up there with Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan."
--Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

"Nilsen's use of frequently silent panels, expansive landscapes, and deliberate pacing evokes a quiet intensity that feels both timeless and contemporary...A compellingly enigmatic adventure story exploring the role of personal and cultural mythology in today's fraught historical moment."
--Library Journal

"An absolute page-turner that will keep you up late into the night...Tongues is flat-out stunning work. It elevates the medium on every page, and the audacious formal qualities are on full display on every connected page and interlocking panel."
--The Comics Journal

About the Author

Anders Nilsen is the award winning author of Big Questions, Dogs and Water and numerous other graphic novels and comics.