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  • Published: 15 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529977882
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208

The Crystal Vase

  • Astrid Goldsmith




A road-trip across Europe and back in time through the Black Forest, 1960s Zimbabwe, Nazi Germany, and three generations of the Goldschmidt family to their heart and soul - from prize-winning debut graphic novelist

\"Brilliant, witty and endlessly inventive – an intimate family portrait of astonishing historical reach. It's warm, humane, complex and with a cumulative emotional power that floored me.\" Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine

A road-trip across Europe and back in time: the debut graphic memoir from the prize-winning author of A Funeral In Freiburg.

When her imperious, chain-smoking German Jewish grandmother dies, it falls to Astrid and her father to drive a hire van to the Black Forest and collect the family heirlooms from Gisela's nicotine-stained apartment.

In Freiburg, they are faced with several lifetimes’ worth of belongings to sort through - infested Persian rugs, mysterious photographs, a toy monkey that started a marriage - and a grasping landlord, impatient to renovate.

As the list of demands from uncles, sisters and cousins grows longer, the rabbit-holes of history and memory grow deeper. Long-buried secrets and tales of survival are revealed - from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa - and old feuds are reignited, as father and daughter struggle with the responsibility of preserving the family legacy. More importantly, will they be able to fit everything into a medium wheel-base transit van?

Funny, bittersweet and beautifully drawn, The Crystal Vase is an odyssey of family arguments, identity crises, and late discoveries.

  • Published: 15 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529977882
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208

Praise for The Crystal Vase

Hilarious, moving and brilliantly told, The Crystal Vase is a new high water mark graphic memoir. A fascinating investigation into generational trauma, a poetic riff on the nature of truth, a beautifully observed poem about how love gets passed down…and above all, just incredibly funny. This is a new masterpiece of comics.

Stephen Collins, author of THE GIGANTIC BEARD THAT WAS EVIL

Brilliant, witty and endlessly inventive – an intimate family portrait of astonishing historical reach. It's warm, humane, complex and with a cumulative emotional power that floored me.

Joe Dunthorne, author of SUBMARINE