All the Living

Roman Muradov

Book cover for All the Living
Image for variant 9798875002427
Book cover for All the Living
Image for variant 9798875002427

All the Living

All the Living

Roman Muradov

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Description

Waking up in Purgatory, a young woman is forced to take part in a lottery, which she wins. Unfortunately for her, since she has had enough of life, the prize is to return to the world of the living and continue her life from where she had left it, with one significant difference: this time, she can see and communicate with ghosts--her own included. Her dull, monotonous life carries on, though her profound solitude is now mitigated by the presence of the ghosts of the dead, most notably her own. She discovers that living with her ghost has its advantages, until this relationship suddenly turns into a spectral triangle...

By turns compassionate and cruel, All the Living is a quiet, melancholy story full of delicate details, and unexpected humor. It's a slow and subtle meditation on loneliness, rendered in Muradov's shifting style, full of finesse and sensuality. A parable -- at the same time gentle, penetrating, and occasionally profane -- that marks the return of a master of the modern graphic novel.

Critical Reviews

This bleak, beautiful book considers that modern life may not be rosier than the dark pits of hell.-- "The Observer"

One has to admire the ability with which Muradov effectively communicates how lonely life (and life after death) can be.-- "The Beat"

Muradov's sublime story rewards readers with a darkly comic, keenly observed picture of a life reclaimed.-- "Cinema Sentries"

A very beautiful ballad steeped in silence, that leaves you speechless.-- "Suricate Magazine"

Very controlled, very clever and sensitive. A book that ends in a deep darkness that makes you want to start again from the beginning and stay in the loop.-- "Radio France"

A deeply melancholic graphic novel, All the Living bears witness to the unique place that Roman Muradov occupies in the world of comics. The author introduces the fantastic world into a most ordinary universe with a naturalness that confuses it, mixing the two with inspiring inventiveness.-- "Livres Hebdo"

There's an emotional lightness serving a plot that questions the desire to live. A window onto other places, other dreams, other questions. The themes of this graphic novel, like pieces of a puzzle, elegantly fall into place. Magnificent.-- "LiRE Literary Magazine"

With a very European sense of humor (the story could be a chapter in a book by Mircea Cartarescu), Muradov describes both the daily life between the protagonist and her own ghost as well as the absurd rules governing the world. Although it may initially appear austere and not very romantic, All the Living is a book that gains in consistency with each new reading. An original story infused with poetry.-- "LM-Magazine"

Original, clever, wordless, "All the Living" by artist/storyteller Roman Muradov is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, community, and college/university library Graphic Novel collections.-- "Midwest Book Review"

Muradov, an Ignatz-nominated Armenian artist living in the UK, brings the sensibilities of arthouse film to the visceral texture of his muted, abstracted visual storytelling.-- "Publishers Weekly"

These are the sorts of books that push the boundaries of comics, allowing for a bit of high art to peek through the gutters of the medium.-- "AIPT"

Hauntingly beautiful.-- "Graphic Policy"

Publishing Information

Publisher: Fantagraphics Underground - Fu Press
Pub date: 2026-02-24
Length: 160 pages

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