Vidal

by Danila Botha

Part Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Danila Botha’s powerful debut graphic novel, follows young Vidal who grows up in Tiberias (Ottoman Empire and then British Mandate Palestine) and moves to Paris to pursue his art and freedom and gets trapped there during World War II. Danila Botha traces the steps of Vidal’s life through Chagallian vignettes, from his Sephardic upbringing in Tiberias to studies in the Technion in Haifa, his artistic life in Paris, his work with the underground resistance, and his ultimate arrest and time in Auschwitz.

Poignantly capturing the Sephardic Jewish experience, and Like Vidal and his family, the author’s family were fifth generation Moroccan Jews who grew up speaking both Hebrew and Arabic and coexisting with their neighbours and friends.

A rich artistic and cultural experience, Vidal brings to light the untold stories of family, hope, freedom, and what their pursuit can cost. Vidal reminds us all that it’s possible for things to be different.

"Vidal is one of the most powerful, moving, and respectful holocaust / Shoah narratives that I’ve ever encountered. The voice is true, the imagery explodes with a kind of joy that would do justice to the incredible character that Botha portrays. It left me both shattered and elevated at the same time. Thank you for this work."

Ken Krimstein, author of When I Grow Up, The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt and Einstein in Kafkaland

"Vidal is a vivid and moving portrait of one man’s irrepressible drive to revel in life, love, and art. Told in bold, beautiful paintings that evoke the lyrical spirit of Modernism and testify to a range of resonant emotions, Vidal immortalizes the richness of Sephardic life before WW2, the strength of Jewish resistance during the Shoah, and the enduring legacy of artistic survival."
Amy Kurzweil, author of Artificial: A Love Story and Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir

How do you render a lost world, a story that has almost vanished into history? With realistic precision? Or impressionistically, with the bright colours of the imagination? Danila Botha’s Vidal does both, delivering a remarkable narrative with clear, matter-of-fact style and accompanying it with illustrations that are a vivid delight to the eye. It’s an impressive achievement.

Adam Sol, author of Broken Dawn Blessings

"Vidal is such a beautifully realized work…a narrative that encompasses the world at large with its immense joys and tragedy, all within the journey of one individual…the greatest strength is in its prose narrative followed closely by her passionate paintings… Vidal undoubtedly offers a wonderful window into history and a rich cultural experience...Botha is creating very compelling work, providing that valuable window of accessibility. It brings to life such subjects as Sephardic Jewish life and the Shoah in ways beyond words and, for that, it is essential. This is an important work any way you look at it."

Henry Chamberlain, Comics Grinder

120 pages, Paperback

Published May 25, 2026

About the author

Danila Botha is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collections, Got No Secrets, For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known, which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, The Vine Awards and the ReLit Award and most recently, Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness. Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness won an Indie Reader Discovery Award for Women's Issues, Fiction, and was a finalist for the Canadian Book Club Awards, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the National Indie Excellence Book Awards. She is also the author of the award-winning novel Too Much On the Inside, which was optioned for film by Pelee Entertainment. Her new novel, A Place for People Like Us was published in Sept 2025 by Guernica Editions. It won an Independent Press Award for Contemporary novel and was a Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and National Indie Excellence Awards.
Her first graphic novel, Vidal, which she wrote and illustrated was published in May 2026 by At Bay Press.
She is currently working on new short fiction, and a new graphic novel.

Reviews

[Lucy Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vidal by Danila Botha is one of the first ever graphic novels that has ever really engaged me, and I cannot overstate the importance of that experience. As a writer of historical fiction, I often attempt to highlight those things in our past with a view to promoting reflection about subjects that transcend time and place. Botha has done this brilliantly by gifting us with a novel that addresses ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust. Vidal could easily be used to teach important concepts such as democracy, humanity, propaganda, resistance, terrorism, and accountability. Although her main character Vidal is a Sephardic Jew with his own journey, the heart of the story is universal, with a great deal of cross-contextual contemporary relevance. Botha is herself an artist and has illustrated the novel with vibrant images reminiscent of Chagall’s later work. In Vidal, she reminds us of our duty to remember but also our responsibility to take action. Highly recommended.

[Shannon Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Botha has given us a gorgeous debut graphic novel in VIDAL. Beautiful illustrations accompany a compelling narrative. Must read.