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Physical Education

By (author): Joana Mosi

A portrait of creative stagnation, digital saturation, and the strange, sideways momentum of post-modern life.

Laura has just received a prestigious grant to write her debut novel, and everyone around her agrees that things seem to finally be falling into place for her. Instead, she finds herself increasingly numb and detached from reality—half-heartedly meeting up with friends at the gym, struggling to fulfil her role as a daughter, and managing an abstract relationship with a married man. Haunted by lingering memories of a toxic youth she can’t escape, Laura is stuck in a strange limbo, unable to draw a cohesive plot for her life, her hopes, or her future.

Wry, elliptical, and intimate, Physical Education perfectly captures the quiet absurdities of the algorithmic age and the familiar ways in which we scroll, strive, sweat, and stall our way through the world. A smart, emotionally resonant work for readers of Jillian Tamaki’s Boundless and The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis.

AUTHOR

Joana Mosi

Joana Mosi is an award-winning visual artist and cartoonist based in Lisbon, Portugal. Born and raised close to the sea, Joana has a really hard time sitting still in one place for a long time (which is a problem when your job requires you to spend lots of time at a drawing table) so she ends up traveling a lot, participating in art residencies and comics festivals across the globe. While she’s planning her next artistic endeavor, she stays fresh by teaching (and learning from) new generations of creators.


Reviews

In Physical Education the graphic novel is a vehicle for a work of art rather than a narrative made up of small everyday details as metaphors for something bigger It will be understood above all by the generations that fit into this contemporary angst
Susana Romana Observador

I really enjoyed the interactions between the characters and the construction of the dialoguesIt all seemed very current to me as if I was watching a series about my generation
Rita da Nova

Praise for Joana Mosis debut graphic novel The Mongoose

A poignant portrait of mourning grief and recovery
Vi Kwartler Booklist Starred Review

A touching and intelligent book tackling with finesse a delicate subject that is admirably conveyed in her drawings
JeanCharles Andrieu de Levis ActuaLitt

Disarmingly simple yet formidably effective
Mathieu Roy BDQG

With its pictogramlike graphic approach reminiscent of Chris Wares strips this deeply moving book is read through silences unspoken words ellipses and unadorned lines
JeanDominic Leduc Les Libraires



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Details

Dimensions:

170 Pages
8.25in * 6.25in * 0.5in
0.5lb

Published:

April 07, 2026

Publisher:

Pow Pow Press

ISBN:

9782925114604

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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The cover of Joana Mosi's The Mongoose.
The Mongoose

By (author): Joana Mosi