"Persepolis" is the debut graphic novel by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi. It is an autobiographical tale of her coming-of-age. The dramatic history of Iran — the Shah's regime, the Islamic Revolution, and the war with Iraq—is seen through the eyes of a child. Striving to provide a proper secular education for their freedom-loving daughter, her parents are forced to send her abroad at the age of 14 to a lyceum in Austria. The West, so alluring from afar, reveals its mundane face and shocks the heroine with the fragility of human connections. Having experienced love and betrayal, friendship and rejection, and nearly hitting rock bottom, Marjane is forced to return home. But much has changed in her homeland. The tightening regime of the Islamic Republic has severely restricted personal and social freedoms. A few years later, Marjane leaves the country again, this time for France, where she remains for good.