Contract with God Trilogy (WW Norton & Co)

With graphic narrative that 'was closer to the writing of Bernard Malamud or Isaac Bashevis Singer than any comic art which had preceded it' (The Economist), A Contract with God, originally published in 1978, was the first graphic novel: the prototype - along with Life Force and Dropsie Avenue - for such seminal works as Maus and Persepolis. Set during the Great Depression, this literary trilogy, assembled in one volume for the first time, presents a treasure house of now near-mythic stories that fictionally illustrate the bittersweet tenement life of Eisner's youth. With nearly two dozen new illustrations and a revealing new foreword, this book ultimately tells the epic story of life, death, and resurrection while exploring man's fractious relationship with an all-too-vengeful God. This mesmerizing, fictional bronicle of the universal American immigrant experience is Eisner's most poignant and enduring legacy.