Dear fellow members,
I've had the great pleasure to meet some of you in person, in France over the
past months, thanks to book signings of my autobiographical graphic novel
"REPLAY - Mémoires d'une famille."
The book is a multi-generational family memoir in the form of a 320-page comic
(bande dessinée). It tells my own story as an American creator of video games
("Prince of Persia"), interwoven with my grandfather Adolph Mechner's youth in
Czernowitz in 1900-1914 (and as a teenage soldier on the Russian front in the
1914-18 war) – and his son Franz Mechner (my father’s) later odyssey as a
Jewish child refugee in Nazi-occupied France.
In October I had the great honor of receiving the 2023 prize "Chateau de
Cheverny" awarded to "Replay" at the "Rendez-vous d'histoire" book festival at
Blois.
I thought “Replay" might be of interest for both younger and elder
Czernowitzers to share within their families-- because of its visual depiction
of 20th-century Czernowitz and Vienna, and also because a theme of the book is
transmission: the ways in which the past is present, even for the young, and
often without our conscious awareness.
I'm unable to attach images to this post, but you can see some in my website
page about the book:
English: https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/replay/
French: https://www.jordanmechner.com/fr/books/replay/
The book's visual representation of Czernowitz can also be seen in chapter
notes, like this one, in the online "Annex" (containing historical commentary
and additional background material, for those who have already read the book):
https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/library/replay-annex/chapter5/
https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/library/replay-annex/chapter4/
The Annex (and REPLAY itself) also contain my note of thanks to our Edgar
Hauster, who generously helped me with the research to be able to depict my
grandfather's home town as it was in the 1900s.
For those who read French, the graphic novel is now available in France (in
bookstores and from publisher Delcourt, or through any of the links on my
website : https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/replay/). It can already be
pre-ordered in English (will be released on March 19, 2024, from First
Second/Macmillan).
Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. I hope the book will
stimulate good memories, conversation and connection for those of you who
discover it. I welcome your comments. Happy holidays!
Jordan Mechner (author of Replay, and Prince of Persia)
Montpellier, France
https://jordanmechner.com
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