Polly

Isabelle Pralong, Fabrice Melquiot

French, La Joie de Lire, Geneva, 2021

From birth, Polly has been the subject of incessant questioning. Polly, he? Polly, she? Quick, quick, let’s put Polly into a category. The doctor pressures the parents to make a choice: Polly will be a boy. But now, having become an adult,
Polly is seized with a doubt… Him, a boy? Really? Yet, he does not feel like a girl either…
The playwright Fabrice Melquiot tells the story of a superb inner journey
which gradually becomes a struggle against society and its obsession with conformity. The disturbing beauty of Isabelle Pralong’s illustrations makes «Polly» a unique graphic novel, dealing with themes that are still not discussed enough in literature.

Title: Polly
Publisher: La Joie de Lire, Geneva
Translation rights: Carina Solari, carina.solari@lajoiedelire.ch
Publication date: 2021
Pages: 152
ISBN: 9782889085606
Awards: Bologna Ragazzi Award 2022, Comics young adult

Authors

Isabelle Pralong

Born in Valais, Switzerland, Isabelle Pralong is a swiss comic strip artist. After graduating from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, she relocated to Geneva. Her works have been awarded many prizes, including the Prix Töpffer (2007, 2011) and also the Prix Essentiel révélation at the Festival international de bande dessinée in Angoulême (2007).

Fabrice Melquiot

Fabrice Melquiot is a playwright and director. He is the author of around forty plays published by L’Arche and L’école des Loisirs. He has received numerous awards, most importantly the Prix Jeune Théâtre de l’Académie Française for the entirety of his work. Between 2012 and and 2021, he managed the Am Stram Gram theater, Centre International de Création pour l’Enfance et la Jeunesse in Geneva.