Panel by Panel Graphic Novel Book Club

In honor of Will Eisner Week, join us to discuss Always Never by Jordi Lafebre:

After forty years of being madly in love, Ana and Zeno are finally retiring and giving their romance a chance to bloom while they both still have time left. A unique but relatable love story told in reverse, with each chapter stepping further back through the decades of touch and go courting, showing both the heartbreaking moments that kept the two lovers apart and the beautiful moments that kept their flame alive. This isn't a tale of missed connections and regret but rather a story celebrating the complexities of family, responsibility, destiny, and how love persists across time with complete disregard for all of that.

Ana is a brilliant, headstrong, and compassionate mayor of a small city, with a lovely husband, daughter, and granddaughter. Yet there has been a lingering piece of her life missing -- a thread of happiness she hasn't been able to pull on for most of her life. Zeno, a lifelong bachelor, bookstore owner, intrepid traveler, and theoretical physicist determined to figure out how to turn back time. Handsome, clever, and kind, he is often questioned about his failure to "settle down." Over the years, they have woven together an impossible and inexhaustible love. Their paths constantly intertwining, from a chance meeting on a boat to clumsily bumping into each other in the city they share. Eventually keeping in touch by letters and late-night phone calls across the world.

A luxuriously illustrated love story full of heart, comedy and universal truths, published in English for the first time. Written and illustrated by Spanish cartoonist Jordi Lefebre, co-creator and artist of the graphic novel series Glorious Summers, as well as La Mondaine, and Lydia.

A 2023 Eisner and Harvey Award Nominated Graphic Novel.

Registration is required, and books will be provided for participants. Titles may also be available through Libby or Hoopla, which you can learn more about on our website. If you don't need a physical copy, just note when you sign up that you won't need the library to provide one. If you have any questions, please contact Sophia McKissick at smckissick@tcpl.org.