Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan in 1971. At the age of twelve, she was sent with her older brother to study in France under the care of a great-uncle. She now lives in Romainville, a suburb of Paris, where she works as a legal assistant. Aya is her first graphic novel. Read More It taps into Abouet's childhood memories of Ivory Coast in the 1970s, a prosperous, promising time in that country's history, to tell an unpretentious and gently humorous story of an Africa we rarely see--spirited, hopeful and resilient