Hervé Bouchard and Janice Nadeau’s poignant and poetic graphic novel about a young boy coping with his father’s death won the French-language Governor General’s Literary Award for both text and illustration in 2009, the first book ever to do so. It now appears in an artful translation by Helen Mixter.

Harvey and his brother Cantin are playing outside when they learn their father has died of a heart attack. To cope, Harvey escapes into his fantasy world, one dominated by Scott Carey, the hero of The Incredible Shrinking Man. When his relatives try to get Harvey to look at his father in the coffin, he imagines himself, like Carey, disappearing.

Throughout the book, Bouchard’s characterization of Harvey is unfailingly true. He gives Harvey a voice that allows him to speak bravely of the dark world he has entered while dealing with his loss.

Employing a minimalist, earthy palette of browns, blacks, and greys, Nadeau’s illustrations deftly capture multiple emotions and points of view, creating a rich visual landscape. Finger smudges of charcoal imprint every page. Text and images work together to create a book that is both emotionally intelligent and aesthetically resonant.