An excellent work. It was high time this topic was told in a modern, accessible way. I felt with Karl, his struggle is so real - and realistic, and despite the setting, remains so today.

This wasn't an easy read by any stretch - it was harrowing, cold and heartbreaking to be honest.

A different story to those you frequently see portrayed of life in 1950s Germany - which made it even more important that this story has been told.

Karl is our protagonist & anti-hero - his actions towards his family are not what we want to support, but his own, personal happiness - is what we root for along the way.

For a graphic novel, it had so many layers, and the time jumps were sometimes a little harder to keep up with - but that added to the overall mentality of the story.

The use of monochrome sketches felt very true to what would've been portrayed, if this graphic novel had been released during the time period - however I would LOVE to see it in full colour (or even the final panels to be in colour)

Overall, a great read - thank you Matthias Lehmann, Oni Press & Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of its release

In recognizing his homosexuality, Karl tries to pursue a life which he finds fulfilling, but often undercuts his attempts as the pressure to hide his truth wins out. On his path to happiness he hurts those around him, and himself. A wonderful but tragic story.

There are so many emotions tied up in this novel. It was very bittersweet, heartbreaking, but also had hope. I did shed a tear at the last few pages! The artwork also looked brilliant and worked so well with the times the novel is based, I just wish it was slightly longer as I would love to have just a few more pages to work as a little 'epilogue'

This graphic novel feels very relevant now, especially with the political climate that is trying to silence LGBT+ stories in schools and libraries, so this feels very poignant now. As I started reading it, you get that sense of dread that permeates Karl's life and the anxiety he feels over concealing his sexuality, while also desperate for connection and love that everyone else years for. We see how the anti-gay laws of the time affect his life and the ramifications they have for the community

However, there are some critiques that soured my rating a bit. For one, I feel the story was a bit too long. There were parts that dragged and would've benefitted from being cut down a bit. Also, I did struggle to follow the story at times. I wasn't sure if it was the art style that had people looking a bit too similar to others, because there were times when I got people confused with others, so it's not always easy to follow. Speaking of art styles, I wasn't a fan of it. It matched the dark theme of the story, but it didn't appeal to me as much.

And while I did understand where Karl was really hard to like. I understood he had to keep his sexual identity a secret and the ramifications it would have, he often neglected his wife and child, and it sometimes comes off as we should excuse his behavior because of his struggles. This seems to be a recurring trope in most stories where infidelity is treated as more forgivable because the cheater is gay, but it also ignores the pain the wife is going through because not only has she been cheated on, but her husband used her as a beard.

Also, the ending felt very abrupt. I feel like that could've done with more expansion and exploration.

Overall, this is a great graphic novel that explores loneliness, LGBT+ history, and family. I would recommend it for the library.

TW: homophobia, cheating, toxic parent relationships, sexual assault

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Karl Kling's story is one of revelations, and these he has addressed in a letter to his daughter, Hella, who had disowned Karl many years ago. Karl's letter is a cri de coeur from a father to a daughter he never really got to know, and he comes clean to her about his failed marriages, his fractured family relations--and his love for men.Taking place between the end of World War II and the 1980s, Parallel chronicles Karl's efforts to comply with social norms in order to keep his sexuality a secret. It also paints a picture of a life torn between conformity and rebellion, and the cruel realities of twentieth-century German society, where homosexuality was proscribed and punishable until 1994.
Release Date: June 13th, 2023
Genre: Graphic novel
Pages: 458
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What I Liked:
1. The writing was beautiful
2. The characters felt like real people
3. The story carried along perfectly

What I Didn't Like:
1. The random changing time lines with no warning
2. Very hard to tell male characters apart when they were talking

Overall Thoughts:
This graphic novel tore my heart apart. Karl is not a good person. He’s not a good father and he definitely is not a good husband, but for all these faults you can understand why he isn’t. Times were different. He wasn’t allowed to love openly and was forced in a way to be married. He tries to be faithful to his wives but he just can’t. You can feel for him that he is struggling to be a good person and that he wants to be normal but he can’t.

There is a scene where Karl is drunk and sees a man resembles his old love so he follows him into the bathroom and forces himself onto him. He is stopped from going further but just a warning.

I’m shocked that there were so many twists in this novel. The fact that Helmut started out as Karl’s love affair and the was a sex worker shocked me. Then to find out that Helmut was not even gay but ended up getting her pregnant. My mouth dropped.

There are just these moments where you feel badly for Karl. He decides to not go out with his work friends and instead comes home to bake Lue a cake. They get in a fight and the whole time you think he was trying but it’s just too late. He’s never going to be what she needs and she’s never going to be what he wants.

Oh and then the heartbreaking moment of will his daughter Hella show up or not. I was hoping that she would see him even though he’s been a horrible father to her. When you find out that Helmut married her mom it’s no wonder she took off. Helmut was probably only 15 years older than her and now he’s her stepfather. Plus her own father not being around. I tell you though I cried at the ending when she showed up. It broke me into pieces.

Final Thoughts:
This was everything. I loved it. Sadly I did remove a star because the moments when two males shared a panel it was difficult to tell them apart. I also think it would have been nice to separate the timelines because they would catch you off guard.

Recommend For:
• Gay relationships
• Forbidden romances
• Historical fiction
• Domestic storylines

This was such a wonderful, heartwrenching book! The illustrations are beautiful. I did have a hard time figuring out the different timelines. I think it would have helped if one timeline had a bit more color, or a slightly different style to help guide the reader. Overall, it was a very good story and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys graphic novels, LGBTQ stories, and especially fans of the book My Policeman by Bethan Roberts.

3,5 star rating rounded up.

I find it so hard to structure reviews because my brain doesn't really work very linear, so I hope that anyone reading will still be able to follow along.

I’m also not entirely sure where to put this in the review. But, this story both shows and deeply made me feel the isolation and loneliness as a theme. I would urge you to make sure that it is a feeling you are ready for before picking this up.

I was slightly intimidated reading this as it was so long, but I let go of that quite fast. When it comes to the art, I’m pretty neutral towards it.

So, I was interested in seeing how Karl would manage his life throughout the story as during this work, it’s illegal to be gay. I usually avoid books that I even suspect will contain cheating because that’s not something I like to read. However, I would say that this counts as special circumstances for me personally.

There is a scene during pages 58-60 that made me deeply uncomfortable.

Karl is retired at the start of this book (1980’s) and he’s feeling quite down thinking how he has completely lost touch with his daughter.
So after years and years, he now looks back on his life as he’s trying to pen a letter to his daughter and inviting her to try and reconnect.
Throughout the entirety of the story (1950’s), Karl tries to deny his identity as a gay man, both to himself (during parts of the story) and to almost everyone around him.
Seeing how he tries to both have the life he thought he wanted, the life everyone around him expects him to have, and the life he actually wants, was hard.

If you want to read a character that always does what is morally right, this is not for you. Karl is struggling to figure out how to exist without endangering himself, but also not denying himself to be true to who he is. It’s a struggle and I do think he is genuinely trying to be a generally good person.

At certain points I feel like the pacing was slightly off but looking back to the overall book, it’s not something that feels like a major flaw at all, to me it’s just a little dip.

There is a lot of valid criticism aimed towards Karl from the people that actually care for him. And I imagine that as he has so much struggle in the first place, he lashes out and hurts people whenever they start pointing out actual valid points when his actions hurt other people.
So my initial feelings was absolutely that people were too hard on him, but as soon as I put some thoughts to it, much of the criticism is valid, the delivery was harsh, and I feel like that is something people in general need to work on, to have the conversations before they reach the point where everyone is boiling over.

Overall, I’m glad to live in a place and time where it’s still not always easy being openly a part of the LGBTQ+ community but at least, it’s no longer illegal (personal circumstances. yes, I do know that it's not the same throughout the world).
And peeks into history is important. Let’s not forget the past and let’s not stop trying to make the present and future better.

CW: Homophobia, cheating, some nudity, hate crimes, violence, mention of suicide.

Matthias Lehmann's Parallel is visually stunning. As a dabbler in graphic novels (I thoroughly enjoy them but never read enough), I was excited to be able to get my hands on a translation of this.

The subtle yearning of a closeted gay man forced to deny and hide himself in Germany following WWII that Lehmann portrays is breathtaking. The characters are hauntingly complex; Karl, our protagonist, wants both to live authentically and live comfortably and unfortunately for him, it is not possible. He finds himself unable to conform to society's expectations of him—to be a loving husband, a doting father—but unwilling to give up the comforts that having those things allows; he doesn't want to be lonely and to choose love, to choose the love he wants more than anything, would mean to choose to be alone.

The novel is told through a series of flashbacks, with Karl's post-WWII yearnings being explained in a letter sent to his estranged adult daughter. He longs to connect with her as he's longed to connect with everyone he's met, but how can one connect with others when they have hidden such a huge, important part of themselves?

Parallel is beautiful. Parallel is heartbreaking. Parallel takes a story we know all to well and pays it respect in a time where the return to this time seems a little too close on the horizon. Consider this the easiest 5 stars I've ever given.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this. But it just seemed to drag. I don't think this was for me. I kept struggling to finish it. So I will be DNFing it. Which me not finishing the book doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It just wasn't for me. Then again historical fiction isn't exactly my thing either. So maybe that was also a factor. I just wasn't excited about it.

This is a beautifully crafted graphic novel! At first, I felt the art was overly simplistic. However, as I moved through the story I found that this allowed the narrative to truly shine and hit home. The story is heartbreaking, emotional, and utterly human. This is a book that will stick with me for a long time!

1950s Germany: the war might be over, but for Karl, the struggle is only beginning. He wants love, romance, sex—but despite marriage and children, what he really wants is love, romance, sex with men. And in 1950s Germany, those are not safe desires for a man.

"Parallel" is told in two timelines, the first of which takes us through the 1950s with Karl as he struggles to stay married—to *want* to stay married—and to quell the desires he's not allowed to have. Germany is not yet divided by wall and death zone, but it's not a safe place to be different. His life is split in two, one part in which he is a husband and father and reliable worker, and the other part spent sneaking around in the woods, in alleys, searching for a life he can't quite imagine. In the second timeline, Karl is newly retired, still holding on to his secrets, and wondering whether there is still a chance of building a new relationship with his estranged daughter.

The art here is lovely—black and white, strong lines and extensive use of shadow and shade. I could imagine a version of this in color, one with slightly different palettes for the two timelines, but the greyscale works for the story. I'm reminded a little of "Fun Home," of Bechdel's father trying to be someone he is not—there is the same sense, here, of "what could have been" in a different time, a different place. (That "what could have been" is doubled down on in some of the ways the two timelines collide, but I'll stay vague there.)

At 450-odd pages, this is something of a tome of a graphic novel, and at times I would have liked to see less of Karl's isolation and the violence and uncertainty he faces and more of the lives around his—Liselotte's, Hella's. But there's also an extent to which that would dilute Karl's story, which *is* about that isolation. I was particularly interested in the time frames, though: both highlight Germany on the cusp of major change, with the wall going up and, later, the wall soon to come down. Cold War Germany, but a story within that setting that doesn't often get told. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in graphic novels and queer history.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

'Parallel' is a gripping graphic novel by Matthias Lehmann that explores the complexities of being gay at a time when queer relationships were forbidden. The story follows the life of Karl, a man who is struggling to find his place in the world as well as battling his own emotions regarding his sexuality. Set in the period between the end of the second world war and the 1980s, the novel  chronicles Karl's efforts to comply with social norms in order to keep his sexuality a secret. It also paints a picture of a life torn between conformity to social expectations and rebellion in the search for personal happiness, all overshadowed by the cruel realities of twentieth-century German society, where homosexuality was proscribed and punishable until 1994.

The graphic novel is beautifully illustrated with a minimalist style that effectively conveys the complex ideas of the story. The use of color is especially effective in distinguishing between the different character's and their unique characteristics. The use of white space is also notable, creating a sense of emptiness and loneliness that mirrors Karl's own feelings of isolation and alienation.

The story itself is engaging and thought-provoking, and it raises important questions about the nature of society's expectations and the impact it has on our lives. It can also be highly emotional and I definitely teared up a couple of times.

Overall, 'Parallel' is an excellent graphic novel that combines stunning visuals with a compelling story that will keep readers engaged from start to finish. It is a must-read for fans of historical fiction and anyone interested in exploring the complex existence of the queer community in years gone by.

Reading this book left me feeling both uplifted and heartbroken. The author's raw and honest artistry captures the essence of the characters' emotions in a way that is both relatable and deeply moving. The storytelling ability underlined with the illustrations is truly a raw art that draws you in. While there were moments where the cuts in the narrative made it challenging to follow, the overall effect is a mesmerizing and dream-like quality that is hard to resist. This heartfelt and poignant story is a must-read for anyone who appreciates powerful storytelling that captures the essence of the human experience in a graphic novel format. It is a book that will touch your heart and leave you thinking long after the final panel is turned.

ARC provided by NetGalley. Thank you.

While this is a fantastic premise, I didn't enjoy the art style and the story didn't draw me in.it was at times confusing what was going on and I would have appreciated some extra exposition. The disjointed timeline was not conducive to an enjoyable reading experience.

I didn’t really like art style but the story was written well. It was eye opening to see what they had to go through back then.

This had me hooked from the beginning. I genuinely gravitate towards books that reminisce over someone’s life and the flow of this story along with the graphics/ illustrations made this book whole.
Although it’s not all happy and rainbows, the story is compelling and I will be recommending this a lot!

4.5/5 stars.

Going into this, I really wasn't sure. I wasn't sure that Parallel was the right fit for me, or that I would enjoy it, or that I would find myself relating to the character. I think narratives like this have to walk a tightrope between authentic and problematic (My Policeman comes to mind). I dipped my toes into this graphic novel thinking that it might romanticize the core problem (who you are is illegal and the society is so heteronormative everything else feels dirty) or cheating.

However, I was really pleasantly surprised.

While it definitely includes/discusses both, I think it does so in a very emotional way that lets the reader explore the problem at their own pace and from their own perspective. I ultimately found Karl's story extremely touching, and given the length of the graphic novel, I thought that every character got enough space to be allowed to feel what they needed to feel. It doesn't glamorize the horrible reality of being queer in post-WWII Germany, but it does shed a lot of light on the issues at hand.

Karl himself is not the perfect protagonist, and he's often his own antagonist. Just like Helmut, Liselotte, and everybody else, he's a flawed person who messes up, and so do the others. I thought this was really extraordinarily real (for the lack of a better word) and definitely deserving of its high rating and praise. While sad and heartbreaking at times, the subtle art style prevents you from being manipulated into tears. It's simply an incredibly real story that makes you think about human nature. As a queer person from/in Europe, I felt really close to it as well.

Oni Press has really become one of my favorite publishers this year, everything I've read from them has been a success.

*This review is an exchange for an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley*

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Homophobia, cheating, ww2 references including antisemitism

This book was incredibly well done. The character dynamic and plot had such a sense of realistic dread. Throughout the story, you feel a sense of pity for Karl, our main character while also understanding his actions are not always good ones. The story was sad, filled with a sense of despair and self loathing that really adds depth into the art and story. Definitely recommend.

Wow, this book was amazing. When I started reading this graphic novel I was really attracted to the storyline: a gay man in Germany during the 1950's living life with his family, but also trying to figure out how to live like his true self.

The art in this novel is beautiful. Sometimes I think facial features could have been made more clear but maybe that was due to my ereader and it is different in the physical print.

It was an emotional story with basically a lifetime to be told. It was beautiful to read and I felt so many different emotions toward Karl. Sometimes I understood him, other times he made me angry. Amazingly done by the author.

The only reason why I could not give it five stars is because I sometimes wished I could have seen more about Karl's live towards the ending. In part 3 you are mostly looking into his past and his present are just short passages.