New Releases by Leela Corman

EISNER AWARD NOMINEE • AN NPR, WASHINGTON POST, GUARDIAN, AND PW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The author of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Unterzakhn now gives us a heart-wrenching, phantasmagorical tale of love, loss, and trauma both personal and global, set during World War II in Brooklyn, New York, and in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. One of a group of women working as welders in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Rose Arensberg has fallen in love with a disabled veteran while awaiting the return of her husband, Sam, a soldier in the American army serving in Europe. As we follow the bittersweet, heartbreaking stories of Rose and her fellow Rosie-the-Riveters, we're immersed in the day-to-day challenges of life on the home front as seen through the eyes of these resilient women, as well as through the eyes of Eleanor, Rose’s impressionable young daughter, and Ruth, the German Jewish refugee Rose has taken into their home. Ruth’s desperate attempt to exorcise the nightmare of growing up in pre-war Nazi Germany takes her into the world of professional women wrestlers—with devastating consequences. And Sam’s encounters with the horrors of a liberated concentration camp follow him home to Brooklyn in the form of terrifying flashbacks that will leave him scarred forever. Victory Parade paints a deeply affecting portrait of how individuals and civilizations process mass trauma. Magnificently drawn by Leela Corman, it’s an Expressionist journey through the battlefields of the human heart and the mass graves of genocide.

A collection of short stories by Leela Corman, including devastating personal loss, teaching bellydancing classes, her family in World War II Poland, reports from an American bellydancer about life in post revolution Egypt, and more.

A mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths. “A haunting and often heartbreaking look at Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century [and] also a story about women, power, and bodies.” —Austin American-Statesman For six-year-old Esther and Fanya, the teeming streets of New York’s Lower East Side circa 1910 are both a fascinating playground and a place where life’s lessons are learned quickly and often cruelly. In drawings that capture both the tumult and the telling details of that street life, Unterzakhn (Yiddish for “Underthings”) tells the story of these sisters: as wide-eyed little girls absorbing the sights and sounds of a neighborhood of struggling immigrants; as teenagers taking their own tentative steps into the wider world (Esther working for a woman who runs both a burlesque theater and a whorehouse, Fanya for an obstetrician who also performs illegal abortions); and, finally, as adults battling for their own piece of the “golden land,” where the difference between just barely surviving and triumphantly succeeding involves, for each of them, painful decisions that will have unavoidably tragic repercussions.

Dessous décrit la vie tumultueuse de deux soeurs jumelles, Esther et Fanya, issues de la communauté juive du Lower East Side new-yorkais du début du XXe siècle. Leur mère tient un atelier de confection et trompe sans vergogne son mari, un homme effacé. Peu enclines à reprendre le commerce maternel, les deux soeurs s'éloignent du giron familial dès l'adolescence. Fanya est embauchée par une sage-femme avorteuse qui fera son éducation scolaire et politique. Esther, fascinée par les danseuses d'un théâtre burlesque local, prend des cours de danse tout en travaillant comme bonne à tout faire dans la maison close attenante au théâtre. Les chemins des deux soeurs, pourtant très liées l'une à l'autre, vont progressivement diverger. Avec Dessous, Leela Corman décrit les difficultés de cette population immigrante à la veille de la grande dépression, mais brosse surtout le magnifique portrait de deux femmes libres et farouchement indépendantes.

From its simple beginnings as a unisex body wrap to its bold march forward as an iconic symbol of femininity to a haute couture fashion statement, the skirt has had a perilous journey—one day subject to accolades, the next ridicule, and even coming under fire before the Supreme Court. Cultural icon, garment of personal expression, verb or slur, the significance of the skirt is grander than merely serving as an article of clothing. Through the years, skirts have been both liberating and restricting, inspiring and exasperating. Skirts transcend mere fashion, serving as barometers of the cultural zeitgeist. The Long and Short of It will humorously detail the evolution of the skirt and the women (and men) who wore them. Loosely divided by different skirts (the bustle, the hobble, the pencil skirt, the peasant skirt, miniskirt, etc.), the book will chronologically cover ancient times, pre-twentieth century, World War I, the flapper era, Hollywood years, World War II, rock n' roll, free love, women's lib, the Power Decade, and several others. The Long and Short of It will will feature: the relationship between women's salaries and their hemlines the history of the skirt through the changing wardrobe of America's first ladies religious references to the sacred nature of skirts nineteenth century fashion tips laws protecting women and their skirts The change in censorship of women's legs—by the length of Jane's skirt in classic Tarzan films crazy cases brought to court involving women's skirts—including a 2004 case of a woman lawyer barred from a courtroom by a judge—for wearing trousers Snappy and fun, with two-color illustrations and amusing quotes and sidebars, this sassy history from famed book packagers becker&mayer! is the perfect combination of history, fashion, and culture.

Subway Series follows Tina, a frustrated sixteen-year-old city girl, and her dealings with two boyfriends and a former friend.

French lessons: After an audience member shouts something in French during a punk rock performance, the lead singer later learns what it means. Subway series preview: A woman plans to seduce a man at a party.