Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran, and later made her home in Paris, where she worked as a cartoonist, illustrator and filmmaker and contributed to magazines and newspapers including the New Yorker and the New York Times. She died in Paris in June 2026, aged 56; the French presidency confirmed her death.
Her best-known work is autobiographical. Persepolis follows a girl in Tehran through the overthrow of the Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq, then her teenage years abroad in Austria and her return to Iran. The drawings are stark black-and-white comic panels, and the political upheaval is seen through a child's eyes before an adult's.
It first appeared in four French volumes from L'Association between 2000 and 2003 and has since been translated into more than 20 languages. The English editions came from Pantheon, with Mattias Ripa translating the first part and Blake Ferris the second. In 2007 Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud co-directed an animated film of the story, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes and earned an Oscar nomination for best animated feature. The New York Times has placed the book on its lists of the best memoirs of the past fifty years and the best books of the 21st century. She also wrote Embroideries and Chicken with Plums, along with several children's books.
Start with Persepolis. The Complete Persepolis, issued by Pantheon in 2023, gathers both parts in one volume, so a new reader gets the childhood and the return together. Embroideries and Chicken with Plums are the natural next steps.
