“Habibi lifts the bar of graphic storytelling to new heights, both by the intricate, dramatic density and breathtaking scholarship of Thompson’s panels and by the sheer scale and decorative beauty of his flowing, roiling, protean style. Thompson is the Charles Dickens of the genre, able to capture all the scary, heartbreaking, brave, uplifting details of his characters’ fates while orchestrating the big-picture machinations that connect them to the lives and times of his readers…Habibi is a masterpiece that surely is one of a kind.”

–Lisa Shea, Elle Magazine

“HABIBI is a remarkable feat of research, care, and black ink, and a reminder that all "People of the book," despite the division of their individual traditions, share a mosaic of stories.”

—Zadie Smith, Harper’s Magazine

“Eight years on, his next, even longer epic goes from the Midwest to the Middle East: Habibi is a fantastical love story of a harem girl and the slave boy she rescues, inspired by the Arabian Nights, ancient calligraphy, and modern environmental catastrophe.”

—Dan Kois, New York Magazine

“Habibi is an epic, love story set in a richly rendered, fictional Middle East, ancient yet modern, where his characters’ misadventures are woven with tales from the Bible and Koran, as well as themes of imperial debauchery and environmental woe.”

—Michael Mechanic, Mother Jones Magazine

“A lushly epic love story that’s both inspiring and heartbreaking…In addition to richly detailed story panels, the gorgeous Arabic ornamental calligraphy makes each page an individual work of art.”

–Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The exquisite beauty and deep magic of this Arabian Nights-style love story cannot be overstated.”

–Library Journal, starred review

“Habibi is certain to join the ranks of graphic novels that expand our understanding of not only the genre but also the world it describes.”

–Library Journal Fall Finds

“A graphic novel that is sure to attract attention…A mature glimpse into a world few Westerners are at home with, and Thompson is respectful.”

–Kirkus Reviews

“This is not just an epic that sprawls from desert to harem to modern urban waste…it’s a look at how the first and third worlds are divided, Islam and Christianity united, and humanity too separated from the natural world..”

–Library Journal PrePub

“A dense, swirling dervish of a tale…this will be the most talked about graphic novel of the fall.”

–Publisher Weekly Comics Week

“Craig Thompson's new graphic novel, Habibi, is a masterpiece. This isn't an opinion. This book is a gorgeous object; to make it, Thompson apparently covered himself in honey and rolled around in a thousand years of Arabic calligraphy and Islamic art, and the result is breathtaking.” Read more

- The Boston Phoenix

Craig Thompson's previous graphic novels include Blankets (for which he received three Harvey Awards for Best Artist, Best Graphic Album of Original Work, and Best Cartoonist; and two Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist); Goodbye, Chunky Rice; and Carnet de Voyage. He lives in Portland, Oregon.