Thanks NetGalley and Europe Comics for the ARC for review.
The Two Lives of Penelope is an insightful story about a doctor working for Doctors Without Borders. Being a doctor is a benevolent job but it has its burdens as well. Through Penelope's story we can not only see Penelope's struggle with her two lives but also the struggle of millions of lives in war torn areas like Syria.
A thoughtful book. I liked it.
Artwork is excellent. Innovative. Eye-catching. Fits with the story.

This graphic novel was beautifully composed and illustrated by Judith Vanistendael. Penelope is a doctor working in Syria who returns home to her family with increasing difficulty. The imagery is stunning and envelops the reader into the scenarios in the Doctors Without Borders camp. There is a relatively muted color palette, which makes the somewhat graphic nature of war, as depicted, stand out on the page. Overall, a beautiful piece!

This was a searing portrait of living with trauma. The watercolor fuzziness of the art matched the theme perfectly and the family dynamics felt real. One of the best books I have read this year.

I loved this book from the preview. The content starts off dark as we see our main character sending a gift for her daughters birthday. We then go back to the last time they were togther.
Penelope is a Physician working with Doctors Without Borders, home in Belgium for the holidays. She struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, her writer husband and life in general. She is clearly torn with wanting to be in the moment with her family while carrying the internal mental scars of what she has seen. This is illustrated by the red ghost of a girl she couldn't save.
The illustrations enhance this simple but hitting narrative, the scenes flowing with the pallet of blue and green, the red of the ghost the stark reminder of what she has left behind and will return to.
This is a powerful and short book that highlights the conflict of those working in these environments.

Here’s a question. You have the choice of taking care of your family who is suffering in your absence or taking care of other families who are suffering through the ravages of war? How do you deal with this?

The Two Lives of Penelope by Judith Vanistendael is about this conflict that arises when you’re governed by a higher purpose. It’s about Penelope, a surgeon who works with Doctors Without Borders and is posted to Syria during the war. She comes home for a few months, but her presence is clouded heavily by the impermanence of it. Everyone is unconsciously counting down the days before she needs to leave again and then it’s a period of worry until she returns. How does Penelope’s family take it? How does she herself take it?

The Two Lives of Penelope is exactly that. Penelope leads two very different lives. In one, she is a doctor, caring for wounded children, emotionally shattered by the scenes that greet her every day. She suffers from PTSD, emotional breakdowns, having to deal with the ghosts of war. The last is heartbreakingly shown in the illustrations where Penelope imagines the ghost of a girl she couldn’t save following her around.

In her parallel life, she is a daughter, wife, and mother. She has to deal with ‘problems’ like deciding which wine to pair with a dish or her daughter worrying about a Latin test.

There are many moments when the two worlds merge and Penelope is unable to reconcile with them.

“Sometimes you don’t understand why you are where you are…
I have a daughter…
She lives a charmed life here…
While I’m growing and changing in your world, where the wounds of children her age are real, she’s all worked up about the ablative case.”

I think this was a very mature novel that beautifully showed the repercussions of war on not just the victims but those associated with it. Relationships are strained. Mental health suffers. There is brokenness all around. All of this is perfectly captured through watercolour-like illustrations which are a mix of dark, bold lines and fluid pastels.

A sombre, thoughtful read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the ARC.

Thanks NetGalley and Europe Comics for the ARC for review.
The Two Lives of Penelope is an insightful story about a doctor working for Doctors Without Borders. Being a doctor is a benevolent job but it has its burdens as well. Through Penelope's story we can not only see Penelope's struggle with her two lives but also the struggle of millions of lives in war torn areas like Syria.
A thoughtful book. I liked it.

Working as a surgeon in Aleppo, Penelope spends months at a time away from her husband and teenage daughter. She comes back home for Christmas and finds that, once again, her mother and sister are pressuring her to stay home for good. They can't understand Penelope's motivation.

What her loved ones don't know is that Penelope did not return home alone. She carries with her the memory of a child she was unable to help. The child haunts her so much, she decides to seek psychological help.

There are layers to this book including a whole section about masks that is telling in what it says about Penelope and how her husband and child see her. I know this is a graphic novel I'll remember for years to come.

In my effort to work my way through older books which I acquired quite a while ago, I am reading graphic novels again. This is one such book.
It took me a while to get used to the art style, but the further I got into the narrative, it seemed best suited to narrate the story. The style involved swirls, colours that escaped the boundaries and overall portrayed a very stifling environment.
We have a Belgian physician who is home only on short stints, and she spends the rest working in Syria. She battles death every day for her unnamed patients, but when she is home, the normalness of that life jars on her. The complexities of being the woman of the house who lets the man do the caring for their daughter is also constantly being discussed. Her daughter is growing up, her family has a place for her to slip into when she is back, but it looks like something that's very hard to do.
It is not an easy book, the relationships shown here survive all the ups and downs in a very realistic fashion. There is no closure at the end, and it is a heavy read for its size. I am glad I gave it a shot, but I probably would not reread it.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley, the review is entirely based on my own reading experience of this book.

In this deeply moving graphic novel we meet Penelope who has two lives and she lives in two worlds.
In one life Penelope is a wife, mother and a doctor, working in Belgian hospital. Her life is well ordered and peaceful. She spends her days with family, friends, her teen daughter and poet husband.

In her other life Penelope lives in a tent in war-torn Syria. She see the horrors of war everyday, injuries, broken bodies and dead children. Sometimes Penelope's two lives clash. She watches her teenage daughter shopping, fussing over her food and being a normal teenager. In Syria she sees the bloodied bodies of children and sometimes these images follow her home to Belgium.

This is a beautifully drawn graphic novel and it is haunting. As Penelope seeks to reconcile her life she struggles and questions what she should be doing. She is needed in Syria but she is needed at home in Belgium and so the push and pull of her two lives continues.

There is no answer to the questions that Penelope asks herself. All she sees is images. It is a dilemma that people might face in all kinds of situations. This story resonated with me because I work with seafarers (sailors) many of whom leave their families for up to 9mounths a year to work, sometimes longer and they question themselves, recognising the sacrifices they are making.

This story reminds us that there are no easy answers, just lives.

Copy provided by Europe Comics in exchange for an unbiased review.

I’ve always been a big fan of abstract type graphic novels. The art in it will make you fill in the lines that aren’t there to create a picture that is just a little bit different for everyone. This graphic novel is one of those experiences.

The Two Lives of Penelope follows the story of a surgeon who is constantly moving between humanitarian assignments that when she comes home to the normal life her poet husband and young teen daughter live, she feels out of place and finds she’s brought home the terrible things she’s seen while on assignment in Syria home with her. As the story continues she realizes that she must decide what life she wants to lead and which people she wants to help.

I really loved this graphic novel because while the watercolor paintings were simplistic and abstract at times, it allows you to immerse yourself into the story and become who Penelope is. Great book for those that enjoy less comic book style graphic novels while still maintaining a strong storyline.

Book: The Two Lives of Penelope
Author: Judith Vanistendael
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🌼The book is about Penelope who has spent a huge amount of time of last 10 years in Syria and now is on a break where she sees her family and their development.
🌼 It is a quick read. I got confused sometimes but then it was ok. The art style was good but not much to my liking. It suited the storyline tho.
🌼 The book discuss topics like PTSD, war, etc. There were some great relationships shown like the relationship between Penelope's daughter and husband.
🌼 Overall the book was quite good.

A good read, An interesting story with well-written characters. I liked the art and dialogue. Would recommend.

I enjoyed this book and really appreciated the art style. It tackles a lot of difficult themes, such as parental-child relationships and PTSD / trauma from war-stricken states. There were some lovely relationships shown, especially between the father and daughter, and it felt like a realistic look into recovery from trauma.

I would say I wasn't particularly interested in the main character, but far more interested in the daughter and the father, which made it difficult to root for the character when I was more on other peoples' sides.

In terms of recommending for education, I'm not sure it's suitable for a younger audience. I would recommend this to 16+, so potentially Sixth Form students.

Thank you NetGalley for introducing me to another beautiful graphic novel that I had not previously heard about. Thank you to Europe Comics for the free e-copy via NetGalley.

The Two Lives of Penelope is an emotional, uncomfortable, and almost haunting read. We meet Penelope, a doctor, who for the last ten years has spent months at a time working in Syria. Penelope has just returned home and we witness her struggle to find the balance between her two vastly contrasting worlds. As a reader, I could feel the pull each world had on Penelope.

It is a quick read but even in that short time I felt connected to many of the characters and feel quite fond of a few of them, in particular Penelope's mother and husband. I really liked the art style. I don't think I've read a graphic novel before that used watercolour. I think it worked well for this story and demonstrated the blurriness of the boundaries between Penelope's two lives and how she could never be fully present.

On some pages I wasn't sure if I was following the speech in the right order but I wonder if that's because I was reading an e-copy and the story probably flows better when reading a physical copy.

Penelope, a Belgian physician, works with Doctors Without Borders in war-torn Syria. In this book, she returns to Belgium after a stint overseas, but she struggles to fit in with her husband, daughter and daily life. She can't forget a girl she lost who stays with her as a constant shadow.
Judith Vanistendael does an excellent job of sharing the struggle of navigating two cultures. Penelope definitely has experienced trauma, too, which adds another layer to her story. I could not put this book down and laughed, cried and felt astonished as I read.
Thank you, Judith, for writing a book that's important, necessary and touching.
Note: This graphic novel includes nudity.

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However all opinions are of my own.
A really good illustration book - I loved the story line.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was quite a gut-wrenching read for me. I felt for these characters, their pain was very clear through the artwork and the way they chose to express it. I would definitely read from this author again.

This graphic novel was really interesting. First the story. I didn’t quite get what the goal of the author was here but I still liked the story. It is a bit strange but it is very interesting to follow this woman’s journey when she comes back to her life in Belgian after working as a surgeon in Syria. I liked how some panels showed the parallelism between the two lives.
Second, the drawings. I think the use of watercolour like that is very interesting. It kind of blurs the drawing, making it more like a sort of dream. It is especially interesting in the case of the ghost as it adds to its texture.
I recommend it.
3.5/5

I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I really loved this short graphic novel.
The illustration was amazing.
You follow a mother that has returned from helping in Syria and trying to adjust back into her job and her family.
This book was moving and I left me wanting more! (which is a good thing)

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

Before today, Judith Vanistendael was completely off of my radar as a comic creator, which is a complete shame as she has put together easily the best book I’ve read this month. Rendered in gorgeous watercolor paintings and poetic text, The Two Lives of Penelope is not your typical comic book and is a VERY emotional roller coaster ride for the short time that one is reading it. Dealing with a heavy topic such as the mental health issues that arise when one spends too much time in a war zone doing humanitarian work, This book was both not easy to read and not easy to put down at the same time. Nothing particularly heinous happens in the comic, I just feel bad for the entire family, that despite their troubles, are hanging in there.

“Penelope is a Belgian physician who works with Doctors Without Borders in war-torn Syria. She returns to Belgium when she can in order to see her husband and daughter, but the transition is hard. Her latest trip home for the holidays proves even tougher than usual, as the coexistence of the two excruciatingly different worlds she inhabits becomes increasingly fraught.”

Taking place in the middle of the still raging Syrian Civil War, this book tells the tale of a humanitarian surgeon attempting to spend some time with her family before she travels back into the war zone. In many ways, this should be a time to relax, but sadly her life is now that of a war doctor, and her home life is increasingly hard to cope with. Penelope has PTSD (or something similar), and cannot connect to the needs of her family anymore – when one deals with war atrocities on a day-to-day basis things like a style of preferred winter coat, or a daughter worried about her nose size are no longer of great significance. She is haunted, both literally and figuratively, by her job – and can’t seperate from it anymore – it is her now. Everyone deals with this the best they can, and sadly we do not get any resolution – one can assume Penelope is still in Syria to this day.

Every once in a while, you come across a comic that surpasses the medium and is an instant classic – for me The Two Lives of Penelope is up there with comics such as Persepolis and even Maus, as a comic tackling a VERY tough subject matter in such a way that it becomes something that should be required reading. I will definitely check into other works by the author, and keep an eye on this, as I really hope this book gets the attention it deserves.