Marjane Satrapi, the author and artist whose autobiographical work Persepolis is widely considered a milestone of graphic literature in the 21st century, has died at 56, the New York Times reports.
A friend of Satrapi told Agence France-Presse that Satrapi “died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life.”
Satrapi was born and raised in Iran. At age 14, she was sent by her parents to study abroad in Austria and stayed there for four years, returning to Iran after experiencing homelessness and a near-fatal case of bronchitis. She later moved to Paris.
Satrapi made her literary debut in 2000 with the French-language first volume of Persepolis, which recounted growing up as a girl during the country’s Islamic Revolution. An English translation of that work and its sequels was published in two volumes in the United States in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and received widespread critical acclaim. In a 2023 essay for Kirkus, Gregory McNamee wrote of the book, “Persepolis stands in defiant resistance alongside other classics of its kind, from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to ‘Letter From a Birmingham Jail’ and Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Twenty years on, it remains urgent, necessary reading.”
With Vincent Paronnaud, Satrapi co-wrote and co-directed a 2007 animated film adaptation of Persepolis; the movie was nominated for the Academy Award for best animated feature.
Satrapi’s other books include the graphic books Embroideries; Chicken With Plums; and Woman, Life, Freedom, translated by Una Dimitrijevic.
The Guardian reports that French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Satrapi, saying, “With her childlike perspective, her irony, her tenderness, her inner demons, the author created a moving world with which readers identified.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
