A Bride's Story: Volume 1

by Kaoru Mori, 191 pages

When Karluk's new bride Amir arrives in his village to meet her new husband and his family for the first time, eyebrows are raised--not so much at the youth of the groom (who's common enough at 12) but at the maturity of the bride (who's a somewhat shocking, almost-old-maid at 20). Aside from a moment of surprise at her age, however, Amir finds nothing but a warm welcome and acceptance in her husband's home, where four generations reside peaceably (if noisily) under one roof. Her new-found happiness may be short-lived, however, when her birth family, motivated by greed, reneges on the marriage agreement and demands her return.

This carefully researched, intricately drawn, and skillfully written manga set in the time-worn mountains and steppes of Central Asia is an example of social anthropology brought to life through the thoughtful depiction of these village-bound and nomadic peoples' traditions and culture. Amir is, as the author states in her afterword, very much a big-sister figure for Karluk at this stage, but if the thought of so extreme a May-December relationship puts you off, then find something else to read. I, for one, will happily stick with it. Amir is several shades of awesome. She can hit a running rabbit with a bow and arrow from the back of a galloping horse, as well as clean and cook it up; she can hear a lost lamb quietly bleating yards away in the long grasses; and she sews like nobody's business. Everything she knows she has learned from a life of hard work in harsh environments. Amir frets so much over Karluk when he catches a fever that one has to wonder if she's lost someone once before to what at first looked to be an innocent cold. Karluk, though young, is already showing himself to be a responsible, kind, and engaged future head of the family, though his wide-eyed, admiring, easily-embarrassed youth shines through when he's being mothered by his over-protective wife or praised by his beloved elders. The reader even has something of a stand-in within the story (though usually just in the background) in the form of a friendly, insatiably curious, unassuming Englishman who is clearly an anthropologist of some nature, living with the family and taking in all the details of their language, crafts, and daily lives that he can. This series' detailed art is consistently lovely (that cover, minus the color, is no more intricate or striking than anything inside, and I can only imagine how long it takes Mori to draw each panel), the character's endearing, and the story involving, creating a fascinating window into a rich, under-represented time and culture.

Manga-ka Kaoru Mori is probably best known for her award-winning (and Library Journal- and YALSA-recognized) series Emma, about a maid in Victorian England. This first volume of A Bride's Story was recently nominated for YALSA's 2012 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list and the series looks to be even more beautiful and ambitious than her previous historical works, so I'm excitedly awaiting volume 2, which comes out in October.