With his masterful illustration style, bestselling French creator-storyteller Chabouté (Alone, Moby-Dick) explores community through a common, often ignored object: the park bench.

From its creation, to its witness to the fresh ardor of lovers, the drudgery of businessmen, the various hopes of the many who enter its orbit, the park bench weathers all seasons. Strangers meet at it for the first time. Paramours carve their initials into it. Old friends sit and chat upon it for hours. Others ignore the bench, or (attempt to) sleep on it at night, or simply anchor themselves on it and absorb the ebb and flow of the area and its people.

Christophe Chabouté’s mastery of the visual medium turns this simple object into a thought-provoking and gorgeously wrought meditation on time, desire, and the life of communities all across the planet. This could be a bench in my hometown or yours—the people in this little drama are very much those we already recognize.

[法]克里斯多夫•夏布特（Christophe Chabouté），《灯塔》《生火》《白鲸记》等畅销图像小说的作者，1967年生于阿尔萨斯地区，先后就读于米卢斯美术学院、安古兰美术学院和斯特拉斯堡美术学院，因擅长改编文学名著，描绘复杂细腻的人性，被业界誉为“漫画家中的诗人”。作品曾获1999年安古兰国际漫画节“阿尔法艺术大奖”、2002年安古兰国际漫画节“评委特别奖”、2006年RTL广播电台漫画大奖、2008年科涅克艺术节“蕞佳单册漫画奖”等众多奖项。