Red Rosa a graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg

Star rating: 3.5 Red Rosa is a very enjoyable biography of a fascinating woman in the socialist movement that I did not know anything about. The book covers her childhood to death, delving deep into both her politics and personal relationships. It also serves as a decent introduction to socialist thought, and an interesting perspective on what was going on in Germany before WWI. The book drops from a 4 star to a 3 star only because the art and layout was at times not quite as good as it could be. The author/artist takes a lot of risks, many of which work well, but others make the narrative either harder to follow or a bit less interesting. However, overall the narrative is extremely compelling, and readers get to learn about an amazing woman that definitely deserves more attention!

A passionate, engaging, thoughtful, and very informative graphic novel. Red Rosa offers a rich biography of Rosa Luxemburg, smoothly combining her personal life with her political career as activist, Marxist theorist, journalist, and revolutionary. Kate Evans ambitiously includes a generous amount of dialectical thinking - indeed, this book could serve nicely in a course on leftist political theory. Yet the novel is also emotionally powerful. The art is very good, emphasizing the physicality of bodies and historical specificity, with expressionist touches and inventive page layout. Strongly recommended.