In the End We All Die: A Graphic Novel - Hardcover

by Tobias Aeschbacher (Author), Andrew Shields (Translator)

Winner of Germany's top graphic novel award, the Max and Moritz Prize for Best Debut 2024

"A comic--and esoteric--gangster story, full of bad choices and inevitable violence." - Kirkus

"This tale of low-level criminality gone horribly wrong will appeal to fans of David Lapham's Stray Bullets and Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler." - Publishers Weekly

If Tarantino met Murakami in Germany--this multiple-prize-winning graphic novel set in six adjoining apartments is touching, intricate and very, very violent.

When three sleazy gangsters storm into an apartment in search of a stolen urn, they set off a series of unfortunate events that threatens everyone in the building. As blood begins to pool, it becomes clear that this story is about more than the senseless violence. What is good and what is evil? Who decides who should die? And does anyone really know their neighbors?

Theft and poison and so much shooting: and yet, on muted and somber pages, heartless villains become vulnerable heroes--before descending to cruelty once again. In this graphic novel that swept awards for best debut in Germany and Switzerland, a classic gangster comedy of errors grows into a meditation on loneliness, morality, and even love.

Author Biography

Born in idyllic and peaceful Switzerland, Tobias Aeschbacher grew up loving gangster films, Cormac McCarthy, Haruki Murakami and comic books. After training as a graphic designer, Tobias settled in the bilingual Swiss city of Biel. He is co-editor of the zine Kosmos Vertikal. His graphic novel, In the End We All Die, won awards in Germany and Switzerland, including the prestigious Max und Moritz award for best debut.

Andrew Shields was born in Michigan and grew up all over the US and in England. He received a BA in English from Stanford University in 1987 and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. He is a translator from German and French into English, as well as a poet, a guitarist, a mandolinist, and a songwriter for his band Human Shields. He lives in Basel with his wife and their three children.