Marjane Satrapi

Author profile

born

November 22, 1969 in Rasht, Iran

gender

female

genre

Comics & Graphic Novels, Children's Books, Biographies & Memoirs

About this author

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Marjane Satrapi (Persian: مرجان ساتراپی) is an Iranian-born French contemporary graphic novellist, illustrator, animated film director, and children's book author. Apart from her native tongue Farsi, she speaks English, Swedish, German, French and Italian.

Satrapi grew up in Tehran in a family which was involved with communist and socialist movements in Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution. She attended the Lycée Français there and witnessed, as a child, the growing suppression of civil liberties and the everyday-life consequences of Iranian politics, including the fall of the Shah, the early regime of Ruhollah Khomeini, and the first years of the Iran-Iraq War. She experienced an Iraqi air raid and Scud missile attacks on Tehran. According...more Marjane Satrapi (Persian: مرجان ساتراپی) is an Iranian-born French contemporary graphic novellist, illustrator, animated film director, and children's book author. Apart from her native tongue Farsi, she speaks English, Swedish, German, French and Italian.

Satrapi grew up in Tehran in a family which was involved with communist and socialist movements in Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution. She attended the Lycée Français there and witnessed, as a child, the growing suppression of civil liberties and the everyday-life consequences of Iranian politics, including the fall of the Shah, the early regime of Ruhollah Khomeini, and the first years of the Iran-Iraq War. She experienced an Iraqi air raid and Scud missile attacks on Tehran. According to Persepolis, one Scud hit the house next to hers, killing her friend and entire family.
Satrapi attended the Lycée Français de Vienne

Satrapi's family are of distant Iranian Azeri ancestry and are descendants of Nasser al-Din Shah, Shah of Persia from 1848 until 1896. Satrapi said that "But you have to know the kings of the Qajar dynasty, they had hundreds of wives. They made thousands of kids. If you multiply these kids by generation you have, I don't know, 10-15,000 princes [and princesses]. There's nothing extremely special about that." She added that due to this detail, most Iranian families would be, in the words of Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian, "blue blooded."

In 1983, at the age of 14 Satrapi was sent to Vienna, Austria by her parents in order to flee the Iranian regime. There she attended the Lycée Français de Vienne. According to her autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis, she stayed in Vienna through her high school years, staying in friends' homes, but spent three months living on the streets. After an almost deadly bout of pneumonia, she returned to Iran. She studied Visual Communication, eventually obtaining a Master's Degree from Islamic Azad University in Tehran.

During this time, Satrapi went to numerous illegal parties hosted by her friends, where she met a man named Reza, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War. She married him at the age of 21, but divorced roughly three years later. Satrapi then moved to Strasbourg, France.(less)

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Books by Marjane Satrapi

Average rating: 4.15 · 87,742 ratings · 6,927 reviews · 12 distinct works

	Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, Mattias Ripa (Translator) 4.19 avg rating — 41,168 ratings — published 2003 — 31 editions	My rating:
	The Complete Persepolis 4.27 avg rating — 20,339 ratings — published 2003 — 28 editions	My rating:
	Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi, Mattias Ripa (Translator) 4.14 avg rating — 15,347 ratings — published 2001 — 24 editions	My rating:
	Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi, Anjali Singh (Translator) 3.72 avg rating — 5,131 ratings — published 2003 — 27 editions	My rating:
	Chicken With Plums 3.74 avg rating — 2,777 ratings — published 2004 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Persépolis, Tome 1 4.27 avg rating — 1,624 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Persepolis, Tome 3 4.29 avg rating — 215 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Sigh by Marjane Satrapi, Edward Gauvin (Goodreads Author) (Translation) 3.34 avg rating — 259 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Persépolis, Tome 4 4.40 avg rating — 128 ratings — published 2003 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon by Marjane Satrapi, Jill Davis (Translator) 3.46 avg rating — 126 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions	My rating:

More books by Marjane Satrapi…

Series by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis (2 books)
by Marjane Satrapi, Mattias Ripa (Translator)

4.20 avg rating — 76,854 ratings

Persépolis - original 4 volumes (4 books)
by Marjane Satrapi

4.28 avg rating — 22,388 ratings

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Quotes by Marjane Satrapi

“To speak behind others' backs is the ventilator of the heart.”
― Marjane Satrapi, Embroideries

261 people liked it

“In life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's because they're stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance... Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.”
― Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

tags: humor , memoir , young_adult

167 people liked it

“We are focusing on the small details and hiding the misery in the world. Look at the smoker and we miss global warming, war, and the crap we eat--not the bad guys but smoking. I smoke and they talk about cancer, I eat and they talk about cholesterol, I make love, it's AIDS. Before AIDS and cholesterol and cancer there's the pleasure of making love and eating and smoking. I have to die someday, so if the thing that gave me pleasure all of my life kills me instead of me going under a truck, that's fine. Besides, why should I live so that when I die I give fresh meat to the worms? I hope that I am rotted and they don't want to eat me. F@#$ck the worms.”
― Marjane Satrapi

64 people liked it

See all Marjane Satrapi's quotes »

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