Meet the author

Laurent Galandon.

Writer · France · b. 1970

Laurent Galandon: an award-winning French comics writer whose children's graphic novel Journey to Tomioka weaves Japanese folklore through the real aftermath of Fukushima with grief and quiet hope.

Laurent Galandon (born 1970) is a French comics writer known for thoughtful, socially engaged storytelling and a strong strand of historical memory running through his work. His award-winning bande dessinee career includes L'Envolee sauvage, honoured at the Angouleme festival. For younger readers he wrote Journey to Tomioka, illustrated by Michael Crouzat, a tender graphic novel in which a brother and sister carry their grandmother's ashes into the Fukushima exclusion zone, guided by folklore and shadowed by a yokai born of the poisoned land. Blending Japanese myth with a real and recent tragedy, it finds wonder, grief and quiet hope in a place the world tried to forget. Galandon's children's work is atmospheric and emotionally honest, well suited to older, reflective readers around 8 to 12.