City of Clowns

By Daniel Alarcón, Sheila Alvarado

Categories: Comics & Graphic Novels, Literature & Fiction

City of Clowns is a graphic novel adaptation of a story by Daniel Alarcón, illustrated by Sheila Alvarado. Chino, a young journalist in Lima, Peru, is sent to write about the city's street clowns after his estranged father dies. As he joins the clowns, he revisits his childhood, his father's second family and his mother's grief. Alvarado's black-and-white art moves between past and present to tell a story about family, migration and loss.

Recommended by 1 person

• John Green: “And I also recommend City of Clowns, illustrated by Sheila Alvarado and written by Daniel Alarcón, who beat me in 1994 in our high school's creative writing contest. He's since gone on to even greater things, including this brilliant story about a young journalist in Peru grieving his father.”