Alan Gratz, author of the his­tor­i­cal nov­el Refugee (2017), has reimag­ined this work as a graph­ic nov­el, with illus­tra­tions by Syd Fini. In this new ver­sion, Gratz offers an addi­tion­al entry point into the grip­ping sto­ries of escape and reset­tle­ment in his book. His char­ac­ters spec­u­late whether it is safer for those in their sit­u­a­tion to remain invis­i­ble, or to delib­er­ate­ly call atten­tion to their plight. Adding images to the sto­ries of Josef, Isabel, and Mah­moud, inten­si­fies that question.

In Ger­many, the year 1938 brings increased threats to Jews. Josef Landau’s father, Aaron, is arrest­ed, and when he is released, he is haunt­ed by mem­o­ries of tor­ture and death. The fam­i­ly is des­per­ate to emi­grate. Refused entry to the Unit­ed States, they board a ship for Cuba, but it hap­pens to be the MS St. Louis, doomed to be denied port at any safe har­bor. Mean­while, the ship’s Ger­man cap­tain attempts to pro­tect his Jew­ish pas­sen­gers from Nazi agents sent by the Ger­man gov­ern­ment. Josef can­not ful­ly process his father’s emo­tion­al dete­ri­o­ra­tion, espe­cial­ly as the for­mer prisoner’s dis­tress is inter­pret­ed as a sign of men­tal ill­ness. When Aaron refus­es to attend his son’s ship­board bar mitz­vah cer­e­mo­ny, Josef sug­gests, ​“maybe that’s what becom­ing a man means. Not rely­ing on your father any­more.” Rob­bing the young of child­hood is one aspect of refugee life.

Isabel Fer­nán­dez is a Cuban girl con­fronting increased hard­ship after the col­lapse of the Sovi­et Union, since Cuba had depend­ed on its finan­cial ties to its com­mu­nist bene­fac­tor. When her father is threat­ened for par­tic­i­pa­tion in 1994’s protests, a per­ilous boat trip to Mia­mi becomes worth the risk. Leav­ing the phys­i­cal­ly com­fort­able envi­ron­ment of the St. Louis, the Fer­nán­dez fam­i­ly and their fel­low emi­grants cram into a rick­ety ves­sel for an improb­a­ble flight to free­dom. They also turn against one anoth­er, a typ­i­cal­ly cru­el result of the stress imposed by auto­crat­ic regimes.

Syria’s civ­il war, which erupt­ed in 2011, left thou­sands with vir­tu­al­ly no choice but to leave their coun­try, which had been dev­as­tat­ed by the cor­rupt dic­ta­tor­ship of Bashar Al-Assad. Mah­moud is a young boy who, in 2015, wit­ness­es state vio­lence, and the fac­tion­al­ized response that can­not offer a viable alter­na­tive. His father con­cludes that they must find a new future in Ger­many, but a bureau­crat­ic and crim­i­nal maze awaits Syr­i­ans hop­ing to find shel­ter in a democ­ra­cy that wel­comes immi­grants. Even the worst con­di­tions in his home can­not counter Mahmoud’s fear of change, nor do they destroy his father’s sense of humor. When Mah­moud com­plains that Ger­many will be too cold, his father asks him, in a word bub­ble marked with musi­cal notes, ​“Do you want to build a snowman?”

Fini’s images are fre­quent­ly set against a dark back­ground, with the blue of the sea rang­ing from a hope­ful light to a men­ac­ing dark shade. Josef’s bar mitz­vah scene fea­tures a loom­ing por­trait of Hitler over­shad­ow­ing the small fig­ures enact­ing an age-old Jew­ish rit­u­al. Maps con­tex­tu­al­ize key scenes, includ­ing the march of unde­feat­ed Syr­i­ans walk­ing down a high­way, their only means of cross­ing the bor­der between Ser­bia and Hungary.

There are sur­pris­ing twists link­ing the sto­ries, remind­ing read­ers of com­mon­al­i­ties in the process by which human beings are con­vert­ed into refugees. Some­times, but not inevitably, they have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to invent new and dig­ni­fied iden­ti­ties for them­selves with the help of allies and friends.