Macaroni !

Europe Comics
Ebook
144
Pages
Eligible
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About this ebook

The touching story of a child getting to know his grandfather, an Italian immigrant living in Belgium. 11-year-old Romeo thinks of his grandfather as nothing but an "old pain-in-the-butt." So when he finds out that he's going to have to spend a few days with him at his crumbling old house, without even a TV to keep him entertained... well, it's his idea of hell. But there are some surprises in store for Romeo during his visit. He changes his mind about a few things, perhaps thanks to his grandfather's neighbor, Lucy, who tells him about her own "nono," and shows him how a spoil tip can be a thing of beauty. Or perhaps it's thanks to Romeo's dad, who speaks for the first time about his childhood relationship with his father. But it's mostly thanks to Ottavio who, beneath his old, grouchy exterior, conceals the hard life he has led, full of suffering and sacrifice. It is a life the 11-year-old Romeo finds hard to comprehend, but which gives him a deeper understanding of someone from another century. It started off as just a short holiday to a grey Belgian town. But this holiday turns into an opportunity for three generations of men to lift the silence that surrounds them. A touching story about Italian immigration, coal mining, communication between the generations and the difficultly of opening up when you've spent your whole life in silence.

About the author

Zabus was born in 1971 in Namur, Belgium. As a little boy he was already a daydreamer, a trait which, he claims, remains to this day. He discovered the joys of story-writing at the age of 10, when he started reading an Agatha Christie novel and stopped after 10 pages to write the rest. When he was a teenager, he took to buying old typewriters on which he'd pretend to type up all his imaginary novels. At the age of 18, he took up studies in philology and then journalism, because these seemed to him the subjects that would best prepare him for being a professional writer. He later found out that it was quite the opposite! After he'd completed his studies, he sent off a load of comic book projects that were refused by every publisher. He became a French teacher for a few years and then decided to give up teaching and focus his energy entirely on his theatrical activities as an actor and playwright. He started to write comic books again, first publishing a few short stories in the magazine "Spirou" and then two kids' series with Dupuis: "Le monde selon François" (2007-2009) and "Agathe Saugrenu" (2007-2009). Alongside his comic book projects he wrote and acted in several plays with Belgian theater companies such as "L'Infini théâtre," "Les Baladins du miroir" and "Les Zygomars." His latest comic book projects are "Les larmes du seigneur afghan" (Dupuis; "Tears of an Afghan Warlord," Europe Comics), "Macaroni!" (Dupuis, Europe Comics in English), a touching graphic novel about Italian immigration, and the charming "Incroyable!" (Dargaud; "Incredible!", Europe Comics), out in 2020.

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