A chrysalis, trembling with life, starts Kuper’s likable latest graphic novel, which follows a monarch butterfly on its migration from Canada to Mexico. Ruins sets this perilous journey alongside the rather quicker – but almost as fraught – relocation of a bickering New York couple to the Mexican city of Oaxaca. Samantha needs to write a book and rationalise a past tragedy, George to rediscover his vocation. The butterfly is more sympathetic than either of the self-absorbed pair, whose early adventures – fleeing local dogs and mooching around the colourful streets – feel like the hackneyed stuff of an expat romcom. The narrative can be broad: the butterfly passes a Monsanto-run farm, a shooting and a Mexican family’s attempt to cross the Rio Grande on its heavily symbolic trip. But the bright, incident-packed panels of Oaxacan life are nicely balanced by lovely sketches of insects and the sparer rendering of the butterfly’s journey, its fragile orange wings warm against blue-grey landscapes. Kuper grounds his drama in a 2006 teachers’ strike and the brutal official response. That stark reality, and the monarch’s threatened status, give the book a vital, passionate thrust.
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