Why I Killed Peter

This hauntingly evocative semiautobiographical graphic novel recounts Ka’s real-life struggle to come to terms with his childhood encounter with a bohemian priest. Growing up in the Parisian suburbs in the 1970s, Ka is torn between the strict Catholicism of his grandparents and the hippie atheism of his parents, until he meets Peter, an unconventional priest. A friendship develops between the two, and soon Ka begins spending the summers at Peter’s camp at Happy River in France. Even though readers will suspect early on where the relationship between man and boy is headed, Ka allows the story to unfold at its own pace, and when the inevitable happens when Ka is 12, readers will be as unsettled as if it were truly a surprise. Life goes on and Ka marries, starts his own family and pursues a writing career. But when his daughter turns 12, Ka is unable to ignore his past any longer and decides to tell his story, teaming with artist Alfred to create a graphic memoir. Alfred’s blending of ink drawings and digital photographs in the final gut-wrenching scenes are perfect visual complements to Ka’s voice, which shifts effortlessly from the innocence of childhood to the responsibilities of adulthood. (Feb.)