{"title":"Alison Bechdel","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlison Bechdel's work masterfully blends \u003cem\u003egraphic novels\u003c\/em\u003e with sharp humour and poignant storytelling. Her narratives often explore complex personal and social themes, weaving memoir with wit to create deeply engaging reflections on identity and human experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom illuminating family dynamics to candidly charting personal growth, Bechdel's books invite readers into vividly drawn worlds where laughter and insight coexist. Her distinctive voice offers a unique perspective within \u003cstrong\u003ebiography and memoir\u003c\/strong\u003e, making her an essential author for fans of thoughtful, graphic storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"fun-home-by-alison-bechdel-9780224080514","title":"Fun Home","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bestselling memoir from a cult favourite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFun Home\u003c\/em\u003e was named a Best Book of the Year by \u003cem\u003eTime\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003ePeople\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiscover the bestselling graphic memoir behind the Olivier Award-nominated musical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'A sapphic graphic treat' - The Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA moving and darkly humorous family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Alison Bechdel's gothic drawings. If you liked Marjane Satrapi's \u003cem\u003ePersepolis\u003c\/em\u003e, you'll love this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMeet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high-school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and the family babysitter. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInterweaving between childhood memories, college life and the present day, and through narrative that is equally heartbreaking and fiercely funny, Alison looks back on her complex relationship with her father and finds they had more in common than she ever knew.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'A groundbreaking masterpiece' - The Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'A finely woven blend of yearning and euphoric fantasy' - Evening Standard\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of The Guardian's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46500843061484,"sku":"9780224080514","price":32.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/21119213482267.jpg?v=1748584359"},{"product_id":"fun-home-by-alison-bechdel-9781529116168","title":"Fun Home","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiscover the bestselling graphic memoir behind the Olivier Award nominated musical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA sapphic graphic treat\u003c\/em\u003e — The Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA moving and darkly humorous family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Alison Bechdel's gothic drawings. If you liked Marjane Satrapi's \u003cem\u003ePersepolis\u003c\/em\u003e, you'll love this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMeet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high-school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and the family babysitter. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInterweaving between childhood memories, college life and present day, and through narrative that is equally heartbreaking and fiercely funny, Alison looks back on her complex relationship with her father and finds they had more in common than she ever knew.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA groundbreaking masterpiece\u003c\/em\u003e — The Independent\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA finely woven blend of yearning and euphoric fantasy\u003c\/em\u003e — Evening Standard\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46500845388012,"sku":"9781529116168","price":24.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11583403482732.jpg?v=1748584441"},{"product_id":"the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for-by-alison-bechdel-9780224087063","title":"The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis long-awaited collection of comic strips by the internationally-acclaimed graphic-literary talent Alison Bechdel offers an acerbically funny insight into the lesbian culture of 1980s America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInternationally-acclaimed graphic-literary talent Alison Bechdel offers acerbically funny insight into the lesbian culture of 1980s America in this comic strip collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBechdel's brilliantly imagined counter-cultural band of friends—academics, social workers, booksellers—fall in and out of love, negotiate relationships, raise children, switch careers and cope with aging parents. \u003cem\u003eThe Essential Dykes To Watch Out For\u003c\/em\u003e fuses high and low culture—from foreign domestic policy to domestic routine, postmodern theory to hot sex—in a serial graphic narrative 'suitable for all humanist persuasions'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlison Bechdel has been chronicling the lives of a small universe of cartoon characters in her strip \u003cem\u003eDykes To Watch Out For\u003c\/em\u003e, which has been syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers in the USA and has been published in eleven volumes. For the first time, this collection gathers the best of those volumes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'So much more than a comic strip... No one comes close to Alison Bechdel'\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eTimes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46504141455596,"sku":"9780224087063","price":48.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/21184703482267.jpg?v=1748640191"},{"product_id":"the-secret-to-superhuman-strength-by-alison-bechdel-9780224101905","title":"The Secret to Superhuman Strength","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe new masterpiece from the bestselling, award-winning graphic novelist and feminist icon, whose fans include Gloria Steinem and Laura Marling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA GUARDIAN, OBSERVER AND FINANCIAL TIMES 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the bestselling, award-winning author of \u003cem\u003eFun Home\u003c\/em\u003e comes this Christmas's must-gift graphic novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAll her life, Alison Bechdel has searched for an elusive secret...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe secret to superhuman strength. She has looked for it in her favourite books, the lives of her heroes, celibacy, polyamory, activism, therapy, and most obsessively, in her lifelong passion for exercise. Skiing, running, karate, cycling, yoga, weightlifting — you name it, she's tried it. \"Oh, to be self-sufficient! Hard as a rock! An island!\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut as she gets older, her body isn't getting any stronger. And in a changing, sometimes overwhelming world, are \"cantaloupe-sized guns\" all a person needs? Maybe the all-important secret is not where she expected to find it...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Secret to Superhuman Strength\u003c\/em\u003e practically glows with a beguiling mixture of intellect, warmth and humour. (Daily Telegraph)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this, her third graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel has written a deeply layered, personal story about selfhood, self-sabotage, mortality, addiction, bliss, wonder, and the concerns of a generation. This is an extraordinary, laugh-out-loud chronicle of the conundrums we all grapple with as we seek our true place in the world. Truly, a must-gift book this Christmas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46504984543468,"sku":"9780224101905","price":59.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/21333123482267.jpg?v=1748661956"},{"product_id":"spent-by-alison-bechdel-9781787335394","title":"Spent","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom her pygmy goat farm in Vermont, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel wonders — can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathing memoir about her own greed and privilege?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'The funniest, most satirical cartoon she has ever written — as well as, perhaps, the most prescient'\u003c\/em\u003e OBSERVER\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eVery funny and self-hating in a good way\u003c\/q\u003e — ZADIE SMITH\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut how is she supposed to sit here writing a book when the world hangs on a thread?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this hilariously skewering comic novel, Alison is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a country on the brink of civil war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHer first graphic memoir about growing up with her taxidermist father has been adapted into a highly successful TV series, \u003cem\u003eDeath and Taxidermy\u003c\/em\u003e. It's a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs the TV show racks up Emmy after Emmy, Alison's own envy spirals. Why couldn't she be the writer for a wildly popular reality TV series which shows people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSpent\u003c\/em\u003e, the celebrated, bestselling author of the modern classic \u003cem\u003eFun Home\u003c\/em\u003e presents a laugh-out-loud and passionately political work of autofiction, and once again proves that \u003cq\u003enobody does it better\u003c\/q\u003e (New York Times) than the real Alison Bechdel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46837950382316,"sku":"9781787335394","price":50.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3a7c5985d177aee922eb9fc4da63322c.jpg?v=1758652515"},{"product_id":"the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for-by-alison-bechdel-9780358424178","title":"The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSettle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it \"half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel\") of the lives, loves, and politics of Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and the rest of the cast of cult-fav characters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMost of them are lesbians, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Bechdel's brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends—academics, social workers, bookstore clerks—fall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBechdel fuses high and low culture—from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory—in a serial graphic narrative \u003cem\u003esuitable for humanists of all persuasions\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47934306779372,"sku":"9780358424178","price":55.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780358424178-the-essential-dykes-to-watch-out-for.jpg?v=1783910952"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/alison-bechdel.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}