A touching and provocative graphic memoir exploring inherited trauma, family history, and the ever-evolving understanding of our identity, for readers of Gender Queer and I Was Their American Dream.

Solomon Brager grew up on tales of his grandparents' escape from Nazi Germany, retold so many times until his understanding of himself was intertwined with the heroic details of his ancestors' exploits. His great-grandmother recounted how her husband, a boxing champion, defeated Joseph Goebbels and cleared the beer halls of Nazis with his fists, how she freed him from a camp and carried their children over the Pyrenees. But was this story ever the whole picture? As the perspective widens, things become more complex.

Alongside the impactful journey of the Levys in Europe and the United States, Brager distills intriguing research about the Holocaust and interconnected periods of colonial history. Heavyweight invites us to examine how the patterns of history emerge and resonate, not simply as a straightforward chain of events, but in haunting layers. Confronting the specters of violence as a historian and a descendant, this book is an exploration of family mythology, intergenerational memory, and the imprint that the past leaves on the present.

In conjunction with the works of Rebecca Hall, Nora Krug, Rutu Modan, and Lila Corman, Heavyweight will contribute to the collective effort of Holocaust study and the chronicling of interwoven human stories.

Pages: 336, Dimensions: 15.2x15.2cm