Humanoids is bringing to English language readers a graphic novel about the dying days of the father of psychoanalysis. Through Clouds of Smoke: Freud’s Final Days is written and illustrated by Suzanne Leclair and co-written by William Roy. The English translation of the book is by Nanette McGuinness. The graphic novel follows Freud reflecting on his life and legacy as he approaches the end of his life.
Here’s how Humanoids describes Through Clouds of Smoke: Freud’s Final Days:
In 1923, Sigmund Freud, 67 years old and an inveterate cigar smoker, discovers that he has mouth cancer, a truth long hidden from him by doctors. Despite his diagnosis, Freud survived 15 more years, convinced the cigars that were slowly destroying him increased his productivity and gave him control over himself.
At the same time, a different sort of cancer was consuming Europe. In 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, annexing Freud’s home country of Austria five years later. His books burning upon fascist pyres and his peers concerned for his life, Freud had no choice but to leave Vienna for London, his final home.
With accuracy and sobriety, Suzanne Leclair and William Roy reveal a raw and nuanced portrait of the father of psychoanalysis in his last days. Here, the controversial figure is shown in all his contradictions and weakness, a reflection of our own fears and trials in facing age and death.
Through Clouds of Smoke was originally published in French as Freud, le moment venu (translated as “Freud, when the time comes”) by publisher La Boîte à Bulles in January of this year. It’s the latest book from the French publisher to be translated by Humanoids; just yesterday the latter publisher announced an English translation of Wander Antunes‘s graphic novel adaptation of Mark Twain‘s The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, which La Boîte à Bulles published in French in August of last year.
Check out an exclusive preview of the English translation of Through Clouds of Smoke: Freud’s Final Days below. The graphic novel is due out from Humanoids in December 2023.
