I feel so thankful for the experience we in the enrapt audience have been given by the team behind this trilogy. My biggest possible thank you to the writer, Zidrou, to the artist, Raphaël Beuchot, to the colorist, Sarah Murat, to the author of the educational post-pages, Olivier Van Vaerenbergh, and to the translator, Edward Gauvin. Much gratitude to all of you for brightening our world.

All praise is justified. Big love to African Trilogy, for the hope shining through the pain. And I like my books warm in tone, like Prince likes his rain purple. At the core, these are stories created with a wide scope, broadening our intellectual view as stakes get higher, and told with a big heart, inviting fellow-feeling with people of all ages and gender identities. The characters are so well-written that I got attached to them. And the more I emotionally connected with them, the more I got invested in their stories whose hopeful feeling let in warmth as it brought a different culture and environment intimately close. It created that rare spark, making the characters and their setting so vivid that it lets you become immersed in their story as if you’re there with them and it partly happens to you, too.

With the third book, A Little Piece of Her, the creators had my heart in their hands and squeezed it like a lemon. I wished a happy ending for Antoinette and Yu and Léopold, but most of all for Marie-Léontine, wished deeply that no one would harm her. And that ending… In parts, it’s about how violence breeds violence, but more than a cycle of violence, it's a cycle of hurt, the harmed later harming others, the ones defiled in their childhood taking it as a lesson to integrate into their world view, growing up to become defilers themselves. And in parts, which the book shows instead of tells, it’s about the consequences of excess of power on a local scale that mirrors its destructive property on a global one. It’s not explicitly stated, but we see the effects of this excess in the shape of an oppressive system of extreme capitalism, multinational corporations looting the global south of resources as they’re kept in debt, thereby robbing populations of true independence and freedom from colonialism. And we see an analogous cruelty in another system designed to uphold the status quo of excessive power, in the shape of toxic patriarchy robbing women of their independence by denying them sexual and educational freedom and to be free to choose their own paths in life.

Others have described and analyzed the plot and themes better than I can, and I don’t want to take up space in areas where my experience is lacking, and I’m well aware that my European white male privilege is an affront to how things should be in a kinder world that actually makes sense. I’m just grateful that so many reviewers have shared their thoughts and their love for this third book in this engrossing series. I loved getting into it without any preconceptions, and so I think it’s best if I reveal as little as possible, in the hopes that you’ll get as absorbed as I was. I adore everything by Zidrou, who, together with Brian Wood and Efa, is my favorite graphic novel creator. Oh, and big thanks to Europe Comics for giving us these superb translations, all made possible by EU generously funding culture increasing our knowledge and happiness. Next step? Democratically translate comics globally (borders are so passé). There’s nothing more radical than dreams of good things getting even better.