This Beautiful, Ridiculous City: A Graphic Memoir

At once heartrending and enlivening, this phenomenal graphic memoir is not another ode to New York but a meditation on how easy it is to fall beautifully, ridiculously in love

On her first night in New York, Kay Sohini sits on the tarmac of JFK airport making an inventory of all she’s left behind in India. Kay realises two things- she’s finally made it to the city that made her in celluloid and prose from across the Pacific – Kerouac, Friends, Plath – and that trauma she’s endured in her relationship has left gaping holes in her memory.

In New York, at last, Kay has room to begin the work of piecing herself back together through art and food. But as her personal story becomes a window onto a mystifying metropolis both inhospitable and inspiring to the many who call it home, Kay embarks on an electric exploration of how to forge the self and a life of one’s own today.

At once heartrending and enlivening, This Beautiful, Ridiculous City is not another ode to New York but a phenomenal meditation on how easy it is to fall beautifully, ridiculously in love with places – and indeed people – that do not always love us back but somehow still save us in weird, unexpected ways.

‘This is such a rich book, both visually and narratively’ – Isabel Greenberg, author of Young Hag

‘A ravishing new take on a storied city’ – Katherine May, New York Times bestselling author of, Wintering and Enchantment

Format: Hardback
Pages: 128
Imprint: Jonathan Cape UK
Publication date: 11/02/2025