Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan

​   I’ve read Modan’s The Property before, so I sort of new what to expect with this book, both story wise and art wise, and sure enough, this was done very much in the same vein. Albeit, on a more basic scale. This book was Modan’s English language debut and it’s shorter in length, and to an extent in range, than the Property, but it still has that terrific realism and verisimilitude that she brings to storytelling with art that may seem simplistic at first, but it in fact very effective.
    The story is about a man who gets dragged into searching for his estranged father aby his father’s much younger lover, a very tall young woman from a very wealthy family. The two protagonists end up being the proverbial odd couple searching for a man who was apparently a total player, a man who himself never makes an appearance within the pages.
    The initial suspicion is that he might have been a victim of a suicide attack, which is a something as ubiquitously and uniquely Israeli tragedy much like America has with its school shootings. It’s interesting the way that gets treated culturally – like something fairly ordinary, something people just learn to live with. It makes you consider the way societies evolve to accommodate their dark sides.
    The entire book, all Modan’s writing, really, is just interesting from a purely cultural perspective, but I also like her writing, the matter-of-factness of it, her style of storytelling, like a good indie or a good foreign movie.
     There’s also a very good long interview with the author at the end of the book, all about her career specifically and the state of comic business in Israel in general. Very interesting and definitely worth a read. Recommended.