All the Living

Waking up in Purgatory, a young woman is forced to take part in a lottery, which she wins. Unfortunately for her, since she has had enough of life, the prize is to return to the world of the living and continue her life from where she had left it, with one significant difference: this time, she can see and communicate with ghosts--her own included. Her dull, monotonous life carries on, though her profound solitude is now mitigated by the presence of the ghosts of the dead, most notably her own. She discovers that living with her ghost has its advantages, until this relationship suddenly turns into a spectral triangle...

By turns compassionate and cruel, All the Living is a quiet, melancholy story full of delicate details, and unexpected humor. It's a slow and subtle meditation on loneliness, rendered in Muradov's shifting style, full of finesse and sensuality. A parable -- at the same time gentle, penetrating, and occasionally profane -- that marks the return of a master of the modern graphic novel.