Review: Anna by Mia Oberländer, translated by Nika Knight.
Fantagraphics, March 2024. 220 p. ill. ISBN 9781683969211, softcover, $24.99.
Reviewed July 2025
By: Anne Kavanagh, Librarian, Collections and Licensing Services, University of Windsor
Anna is the debut graphic novel by Hamburg-based illustrator Mia Oberländer and was translated into English by Nika Knight.
The story follows three generations of women named Anna, who all live in an idyllic German village. While Anna 1 is beloved by her neighbours, Anna 2 and, later, Anna 3 are born comically tall and face mockery and rejection from their neighbours and even from Anna 1. The book unfolds in short chapters and moves non-linearly through time, from Anna 1’s first childhood brush with societal pressures for her beloved too-tall dachshund, to Anna 3’s swim certification test. The story reveals how internalized shame and societal pressure pass between generations, damaging close familial bonds.
Rooted in the tradition of German folk tales, Anna reads like a wry modern fable. Blending humour with emotional resonance, it explores the burdens of femininity and the ways women are made to feel too much for the roles they’re expected to fill. The Annas’ exaggerated and variable height captures this tension, as they are always outsized in the eyes of others. The result is a powerful allegory about taking up physical, emotional, and social space and learning to accept one’s full self.
Oberländer’s art is bold and stylized, with thick outlines, flat forms, and a limited colour palette. A move to a more abstract painterly style late in the book evokes emotional intensity, sometimes flooding whole pages. The hand-drawn cursive text follows ruler-straight lines and, while deceptively childlike, it still requires close attention, inviting the reader to slow down and absorb the story’s message.
Anna is strange, heartfelt, and delightfully self-aware. As the themes are most resonant for teens and adults, it would be an excellent addition to public, academic, or high school libraries looking to grow their collections with bold, feminist stories that champion self-acceptance.
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