Juliette, or The Ghosts Return in the Spring

Set in a French suburb, this contemplative, quietly witty graphic novel from Jourdy (The Wondrous Wonders) follows three disparately lonely characters: anxious Juliette, who visits her hometown from Paris in search of “peace and quiet”; her busy married sister Marylou, who is hiding an affair with a costume-shop worker; and Georges, who greets an imaginary wife when he comes home from the bar to his slovenly house, which happens to be the one the sisters grew up in. Their narratives braid together at a leisurely pace, granting space for the artwork to illuminate such telling details as a row of trinkets from Juliette’s childhood. Familial pressure and intimacy build in tandem, as Juliette unearths a family secret, while Marylou dreams of a life with fewer burdens. Her lover arrives for their greenhouse trysts dressed as a bear or ghost, and wants to make their casual relationship more serious. Meanwhile, Georges and Juliette toe the line between a friendship and romance, but the hazards of being tender in a harsh world are driven home by the sudden death of the baby duck they were raising. The cartoon panels are punctuated by lush, more realistic watercolors exploding in a spring palette of green, poppy-red, and pale yellow. Jourdy draws slice-of-life at its best. (June)