Hypericum is the latest graphic novel from the amazing Manuele Fior.  This 144-page, oversize (9" x 12"), full color hardcover is a wonder to behold.  Two tales run on parallel tracks, grounded in 1990s Berlin where Italian insomniac, Teresa Guerrero finds herself after being selected as a "scientific assistant to prepare an upcoming exhibit on Tutankhamen's Treasure" being held there.  The story connects to – and is bracketed by – the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamen's ("King Tut") tomb by the British archaeologist and Egyptologist, Howard Carter – one of the most momentous and substantial archeological finds of modern times – via the device of the protagonist's reading of the recounting of the discovery in the massive tome, The Tomb of Tutankhamen by Carter with A.C. Mace. 

Page after page of beautifully rendered gouaches of Egypt's The Valley of the Kings intermix with cityscapes of Berlin as we follow Teresa's progression through the city, often in the tow of her fellow expat compatriot, Ruben, with whom romance – and conflict – quickly blossom. 

In the structuring of the narrative of Hypericum, the fleeting pleasures of the present are situated within the timelessness of ancient Egypt, creating a work that is at once a rollicking romance and a meditation on (im)permanence.  It is a story that conflates the individual and civilizational chronicities, bringing the reader up close and personal with the eternal, and told through some of the most effective – and affecting – art of Fior's career. 

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