The story is set in the period between 19 in Berlin, when many momentous events were happening in Germany. City of Stones covers eight months in Berlin, from September 1928 to May Day, 1929, meticulously documenting the hopes and struggles of its inhabitants as their future is darkened by a growing shadow. Kurt Severing, a journalist, and Marthe Muller, an art student, are the central figures in a broad cast of characters intertwined with the historical events unfolding around them. I am giving below a summary of the story as given in the back cover of the book.īerlin : City of Stones presents the first part of Jason Lutes’ captivating trilogy, set in the twilight years of Germany’s Weimar Republic. I finished reading ‘Berlin : City of Stones’today and here is the review. I hope Lutes comes up with the third volume in a year or two. So it is going to be an exciting wait for me – like I waited for the last volumes of Harry Potter, of the Inheritance trilogy (Eragon series by Christopher Paolini) and of the Bartimaeus trilogy (by Jonathan Stroud – the first volume was called ‘The Amulet of Samarkhand’). When I later went to the publisher’s website, I discovered that the writer Jason Lutes works slowly and takes his own time (he had taken 12 years to finish parts one and two) and the third part has not been published it. I searched for the third part on the bookshelf with a lot of excitement. Close on its heels leapt ‘Berlin : City of Smoke’ which was the second part in the series.

And Lo, in front of my eyes, leapt ‘Berlin : City of Stones’. But I had forgotten all about it till the other day when I went to the book shop and decided to do some exploration in the graphic novel section. So at that time, I had decided that I will read this book at some point of time, and had put the book down in my wish list. The Time magazine site said that “even if the follow-up books never come, it will still be one of the premier works of historical fiction in the medium”. It was the first part of a trilogy of graphic novels set in Berlin between 19 – a momentous period in German history. The one at the top of the list was ‘Berlin : City of Stones’. I had heard of some of the names on the list before ( ‘Bone’, ‘Watchmen’) but there were others which I hadn’t heard about.

My friend, who introduced me to graphic novels, sent me the link to a webpage in the Time magazine, which had the list of the alltime best graphic novels as recommended by the magazine.

Berlin by jason lutes