The Crystal Vase

Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publish date: 1 January 2026
Pages: 208
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English

Subjects: Comics & Graphic Novels, Literary, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History

\"Brilliant, witty and endlessly inventive - an intimate family portrait of astonishing historical reach. It's warm, humane, complex and with a cumulative emotional power that floored me.\" Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine

A road-trip across Europe and back in time- the debut graphic memoir from the prize-winning author of A Funeral In Freiburg.

When her imperious, chain-smoking German Jewish grandmother dies, it falls to Astrid and her father to drive a hire van to the Black Forest and collect the family heirlooms from Gisela's nicotine-stained apartment.

In Freiburg, they are faced with several lifetimes' worth of belongings to sort through - infested Persian rugs, mysterious photographs, a toy monkey that started a marriage - and a grasping landlord, impatient to renovate.

As the list of demands from uncles, sisters and cousins grows longer, the rabbit-holes of history and memory grow deeper. Long-buried secrets and tales of survival are revealed - from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa - and old feuds are reignited, as father and daughter struggle with the responsibility of preserving the family legacy. More importantly, will they be able to fit everything into a medium wheel-base transit van?

Funny, bittersweet and beautifully drawn, The Crystal Vase is an odyssey of family arguments, identity crises, and late discoveries.