Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis Writer, Dead at 56

Marjane Satrapi, the Persepolis author who told the story of the Iranian revolution to millions of students around the world, is dead at 56. French president Emmanuel Macron’s office confirmed her death in a statement. “Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and a freedom-loving artist whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim,” it said. A statement by Satrapi’s close friends and family sent out via the French newswire AFP said, “Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life.” Ripa translated Satrapi’s books and died last May after they had spent 31 years together.

Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran, in November 1969, to leftist parents. She became known internationally for her graphic novels Persepolis and Persepolis 2, which followed the semi-autobiographical story of “Marji,” a young girl affected by the Iranian Revolution. The comics were originally published in four parts in French between 2000 and 2003. They have become standard reading in classrooms across the world to understand the Iranian Revolution and the value of personal storytelling writ large.

Since their release, the novels have become regarded as pillars of 21st-century writing. Persepolis placed at No. 47 on the Guardian’s list of the 100 best books of the century and No. 48 on the New York Times’ version. Satrapi herself understood that she had a good life. “I’m this woman coming from Iran, I’ve succeeded in what I wanted, I live in the city I want, I live with the man I want, I make the work I want, and they pay me for it, which is incredible,” she told the Guardian in 2008. “How many people in the world have this luck?”