Shubeik Lubeik

Recommended by Matthew Noe, lead collection and knowledge management librarian at Harvard Medical School

In what may be the best book I’ve read all year, “Shubeik Lubeik” follows the path of three wishes, sold by a man who would prefer it if wishes did not exist at all, across a fantastical Cairo as they link Aziza, Nour, and Shokry across generations, classes, and beliefs. While the interwoven story is powerful, it is really Nour’s struggles with depression and the role a powerful wish might play in “fixing” it that I can’t shake from my mind. All of the visual metaphors are apt, but the way that Deena Mohamed uses words — words that pour out uncontrolled and hang in the air as if they hold real, physical space — that is something unique that I hope other cartoonists find ways to embrace.