Author Guide · Graphic Memoir
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In 1984, when she was fourteen, Marjane Satrapi’s parents put her on a plane from Tehran to Vienna to get her away from the Islamic Republic and the war with Iraq. Sixteen years later, in Paris, she drew that childhood in stark black and white, and the four French volumes of Persepolis (2000–2003) made her one of the most widely read Iranian authors in the world. The animated film she co-directed in 2007 shared the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar. She went on to draw her grandmother’s tea-time talk, the death of a great-uncle and two books for children, and directed films until her death in Paris in June 2026, aged 56. This guide covers her 7 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 key books · 2000–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Marjane Satrapi published seven key books in English: the two parts of Persepolis (2000 and 2002, collected as The Complete Persepolis), Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon (2001), Embroideries (2003), Chicken with Plums (2004), The Sigh (2004) and the anthology Woman, Life, Freedom (2023). Start with Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood; the books below show how much more she did with the same pen.
Where to Start with Marjane Satrapi
If you want her defining book
→ Persepolis (2000) — the Islamic Revolution seen by a child in Tehran.
If you want to know what happened next
→ Persepolis 2 (2002) — Vienna, the return to Tehran, and leaving again.
If you want something short and funny
→ Embroideries (2003) — the women of her family talking about men.
If you want her award-winning family tragedy
→ Chicken with Plums (2004) — a musician who decides to die.
7 Marjane Satrapi Books, in Order
Persepolis
Satrapi’s childhood in Tehran in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as the only child of left-leaning, Westernised parents: the fall of the Shah, the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the compulsory veil and the war with Iraq. It ends in 1984, when her parents send her to school in Austria. First published in French by L’Association in two volumes (2000 and 2001), which won prizes at the Angoulême festival; the English edition followed in 2003.
Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon
A picture book for young children, her first book outside the Persepolis series, published in French as Les monstres n’aiment pas la lune in 2001. Bloomsbury published it in English in 2006.
Persepolis 2
The second half of the memoir: her teenage years alone in Vienna, a failed relationship that leaves her homeless, the return to her parents in Tehran, where she feels out of place, art school, a short marriage and the decision to leave Iran for good. First published in French as volumes 3 and 4 (2002 and 2003); the English edition appeared in 2004, and both parts were collected as The Complete Persepolis in 2007.
Embroideries
After a family meal, Satrapi’s grandmother, mother, aunts and their friends sit around the tea and talk about love, sex, marriage and men. The book is built from their stories of being women in Iran. Published in French as Broderies in 2003, when it was nominated for the Angoulême Album of the Year award, and in English in 2005.
Chicken with Plums
The story of her great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan, a celebrated player of the tar, a Persian lute, who resolves to die when he cannot replace his broken instrument. Published in French as Poulet aux prunes in 2004, it won the prize for best album at Angoulême in 2005 and appeared in English in 2006. Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud filmed it in 2011.
The Sigh
An illustrated fairy tale, her second book for children, published in French as Le Soupir in 2004. The English translation came out in 2011.
Woman, Life, Freedom
A collective graphic book that Satrapi directed and coordinated after the uprising that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody in September 2022. More than twenty activists, artists, journalists and academics contributed, documenting the protests and their background. Published in French by L’Iconoclaste in September 2023 and in English by Seven Stories Press in 2024.
In What Order to Read Marjane Satrapi
Read the two parts of Persepolis first and in order: the second picks up exactly where the first ends, at Tehran airport in 1984. The Complete Persepolis (2007) puts both in one volume.
After that her books stand alone. Embroideries and Chicken with Plums return to the same family, so they read best once you know it. Her two children’s books are for reading aloud, and Woman, Life, Freedom brings the story of Iranian women up to 2022.
A reading path
1. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2000)
2. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (2002)
3. Embroideries (2003)
4. Chicken with Plums (2004)
5. Woman, Life, Freedom (2023)
Everything Else Marjane Satrapi Published
Beyond the 7 key books: 4 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
French books without an English edition
3
3 books · 2001–2002
- 2001Sagesses et malices de la Persea collaborative book of Persian tales
- 2001Ulysse au pays des fouswith Jean-Pierre Duffour
- 2002Ajdara children’s book
Collected edition
1
1 book · 2007
- 2007The Complete Persepolisboth parts of the memoir in one volume
The years · 1969–2026
Quick facts about Marjane Satrapi
- Known for
- Marjane Satrapi is known for Persepolis, the black-and-white graphic memoir of growing up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution that she also turned into an Oscar-nominated animated film.
- 1969
- Born in Rasht, Iran
- 1984
- Sent to school in Vienna
- 2000
- Persepolis
- 2007
- Persepolis film shares the Cannes Jury Prize
- 2024
- Princess of Asturias Award
- 2026
- Dies in Paris, aged 56
- Born
- 1969, Rasht, Iran; grew up in Tehran
- Died
- June 2026, Paris, aged 56
- Education
- Lycée Français de Vienne; Islamic Azad University, Tehran; Haute école des arts du Rhin, Strasbourg
- Lived
- Tehran, Vienna, Strasbourg, then Paris from the mid-1990s
- Films
- Persepolis (2007), Chicken with Plums (2011), The Voices (2014), Radioactive (2019)
- Honours
- Cannes Jury Prize (2007); Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities (2024)
- Married
- Mattias Ripa, Swedish producer, from 1996 until his death in 2025
The red mark is 2000: the first French volume of Persepolis, the book that made her name.
How Marjane Satrapi Writes: A Family History in Black and White
Satrapi started drawing her life only after she moved to Paris, where the cartoonist Christophe Blain brought her into the Atelier des Vosges studio and her fellow artists kept asking why she had not yet put her family’s stories into a comic. Persepolis was the answer, published by the independent house L’Association and soon compared to Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
Her drawing is deliberately plain: flat black and white, simple faces and bold shapes, a stripped-down style often linked to German Expressionism. The plainness does the work. Executions, bombings and the veil are drawn the same way as a child’s argument with God, so the history arrives through one girl’s eyes rather than as spectacle.
Almost everything she wrote comes from her own family: her parents and grandmother in Persepolis, the women around the tea in Embroideries, a great-uncle in Chicken with Plums. She refused to call any of it a graphic novel: people were “so afraid to say the word ‘comic’”, she told The Guardian in 2011, but “it’s all comics.”
Frequently asked questions about Marjane Satrapi’s books
How many books has Marjane Satrapi written?
Seven key books are available in English, all on this page: the two parts of Persepolis, Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon, Embroideries, Chicken with Plums, The Sigh and Woman, Life, Freedom. She also published three books in French that were never translated, listed under “Everything Else”.
What are Marjane Satrapi’s books in order?
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2000), Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon (2001), Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (2002), Embroideries (2003), Chicken with Plums (2004), The Sigh (2004) and Woman, Life, Freedom (2023). Years are those of the first French editions.
Where should I start with Marjane Satrapi?
With Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, or with The Complete Persepolis, which contains both parts. If you want something shorter first, Embroideries can be read in an evening.
What is Marjane Satrapi’s most famous book?
Persepolis, her graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during and after the 1979 revolution, published in four French volumes from 2000 to 2003 and in two English volumes in 2003 and 2004.
In what order should I read Persepolis?
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood first, then Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. The English first part contains French volumes 1 and 2; the second part contains volumes 3 and 4.
Is there a Persepolis film?
Yes. Satrapi co-directed the animated film Persepolis (2007) with Vincent Paronnaud. It shared the Jury Prize at Cannes with Silent Light, won Best First Film at the César Awards, and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards, making her the first woman nominated in that category. The French voices include Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve.
Why has Persepolis been banned?
In 2013 Chicago Public Schools ordered Persepolis removed from classrooms over its graphic language and images of violence; the order led to protests. The Iranian government denounced the 2007 film and had it dropped from the Bangkok International Film Festival.
Is Marjane Satrapi still alive?
No. She died in Paris in June 2026, aged 56. Her family told AFP she had “died of sadness” a little over a year after the death of her husband, Mattias Ripa, in April 2025.
What prizes did Marjane Satrapi win?
Persepolis won prizes at the Angoulême comics festival in 2001 and 2002, and Chicken with Plums won the festival’s best album prize in 2005. She received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in 2024, and in January 2025 she declined France’s Legion of Honour, citing French policy towards Iran.
Is Chicken with Plums a true story?
It is based on her own family: the main character, the tar player Nasser Ali Khan, is drawn as her great-uncle. Satrapi filmed it with live actors in 2011.
Footnotes
- Marjane Satrapi — Wikipedia
- Marjane Satrapi — Encyclopædia Universalis
- Marjane Satrapi — University of Iowa Lectures
- Marjane Satrapi, autrice de Persepolis, est morte — ActuaLitté, 2026
- Franco-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi has died — The New Arab, 2026
- Marjane Satrapi (1969–2026) — Penguin UK
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“One can forgive but one should never forget.”
— Marjane Satrapi, introduction to Persepolis (2003)
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