Eliza is a thirty-something struggling single mother and poet. Sasha, a twenty-something yearning for direction in life, just moved back in with her parents and dabbles as a sex worker. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that, as it veers toward something more, becomes a deeply resonant exploration of how far people are willing to go to find intimacy in a society that is increasingly closed off.

An original graphic novel about the messiness of modern relationships by one of the most exciting voices in contemporary literature.Eliza is a thirtysomething struggling single mother and poet; Sasha, a twentysomething living with her parents, dabbling in sex work, and yearning for direction in life. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that, as it veers towards something more, becomes a deeply resonant exploration of how far people are willing to go to find intimacy in a society that is increasingly closed off.Parrish’s fully realised characters and gorgeously painted pages make Men I Trust one of the most moving and insightful works of fiction in any medium this year.

Sasha är en deprimerad ung slacker som bor hos sina föräldrar och letar efter en mening med sitt liv. Eliza är en ensamstående varannanveckasmamma som jobbar på en deli och försöker hinna med nåt slags karriär som spoken word-artist och författare. Sasha fascineras av Elizas verk och försöker påstridigt skapa en vänskap mellan dem, men berättelsen tar en olycklig vändning. Tommi Parrish föddes 1989 i Melbourne och har publicerats fortlöpande på svenska i tidskriften Det Grymma Svärdet sedan 2017. På engelska föreligger två tidigare böcker samt publiceringar i Granta och The New Yorker, men detta är första gången denna berättelse publiceras i bokform.

Tommi Parrish is an Australian trans cartoonist and one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary comics and graphic novels. Balancing emotional honesty with a keen awareness of the human condition, Parrish navigates fear, loneliness, identity, body politics, queer desire, masculinity, fear, and the ever-fluid nature of all human relationships. The Past Is A Grotesque Animal collects over two dozen short stories of varying lengths, interspersed with ephemera from Parrish's own life: diary entries, photographs, illustrations, paintings, and more. Parrish's autobiographical elements inform their voice as a writer, and the ways their characters constantly find one another adrift in their own seas of experience, current situations, trauma, and desire - and how those things coexist, and how they are complicated by outside forces and internal ones that affect our hardwired need for meaningful connection. The book also showcases Parrish's singular and assured visual style, blending clear lines, expressionistic character designs and gorgeously complex, hand-painted colour. 'I think of my work as trying to work out how to cultivate a type of intimacy that doesn't have a roadmap, and everyone is just feeling around in the dark trying to work out how to do it,' Parrish says. 'I think that's what I am always trying to get at - how to cultivate that closeness when you're also really fucking traumatised and lonely. I know a lot of people where that's their story. There have definitely been moments where that's my story as well.'

Eliza is a thirty-something struggling single mother and poet. Sasha, a twenty-something yearning for direction in life, just moved back in with her parents and dabbles as a sex worker. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that, as it veers toward something more, becomes a deeply resonant exploration of how far people are willing to go to find intimacy in a society that is increasingly closed off.

An original graphic novel about the messiness of modern relationships by one of the most exciting voices in contemporary literature.Eliza is a thirtysomething struggling single mother and poet; Sasha, a twentysomething living with her parents, dabbling in sex work, and yearning for direction in life. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that, as it veers towards something more, becomes a deeply resonant exploration of how far people are willing to go to find intimacy in a society that is increasingly closed off.Parrish’s fully realised characters and gorgeously painted pages make Men I Trust one of the most moving and insightful works of fiction in any medium this year.

Sasha är en deprimerad ung slacker som bor hos sina föräldrar och letar efter en mening med sitt liv. Eliza är en ensamstående varannanveckasmamma som jobbar på en deli och försöker hinna med nåt slags karriär som spoken word-artist och författare. Sasha fascineras av Elizas verk och försöker påstridigt skapa en vänskap mellan dem, men berättelsen tar en olycklig vändning. Tommi Parrish föddes 1989 i Melbourne och har publicerats fortlöpande på svenska i tidskriften Det Grymma Svärdet sedan 2017. På engelska föreligger två tidigare böcker samt publiceringar i Granta och The New Yorker, men detta är första gången denna berättelse publiceras i bokform.

Tommi Parrish is an Australian trans cartoonist and one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary comics and graphic novels. Balancing emotional honesty with a keen awareness of the human condition, Parrish navigates fear, loneliness, identity, body politics, queer desire, masculinity, fear, and the ever-fluid nature of all human relationships. The Past Is A Grotesque Animal collects over two dozen short stories of varying lengths, interspersed with ephemera from Parrish's own life: diary entries, photographs, illustrations, paintings, and more. Parrish's autobiographical elements inform their voice as a writer, and the ways their characters constantly find one another adrift in their own seas of experience, current situations, trauma, and desire - and how those things coexist, and how they are complicated by outside forces and internal ones that affect our hardwired need for meaningful connection. The book also showcases Parrish's singular and assured visual style, blending clear lines, expressionistic character designs and gorgeously complex, hand-painted colour. 'I think of my work as trying to work out how to cultivate a type of intimacy that doesn't have a roadmap, and everyone is just feeling around in the dark trying to work out how to do it,' Parrish says. 'I think that's what I am always trying to get at - how to cultivate that closeness when you're also really fucking traumatised and lonely. I know a lot of people where that's their story. There have definitely been moments where that's my story as well.'