This Beautiful, Ridiculous City: A Story of Food, Memory, and Migration

A vibrant graphic memoir of a woman--an immigrant, a survivor, a writer, a foodie, and, ultimately, an optimist--who rebuilds her life in New York City while recovering from the trauma of an abusive relationship.

＂An intimate portrait of the city not only as a place of dreams, but as a vital source for healing and self-discovery.＂--Nick Sousanis, Eisner Award-winning author of Unflattening

On her first night in New York City, Kay Sohini sits on the tarmac of JFK Airport making an inventory of everything she’s left behind in India: her family, friends, home, and gaslighting ex-boyfriend. In the wake of that untethering she realizes two things: she’s finally made it to the city of her literary heroes--Kerouac, Plath, Bechdel--and the trauma she’s endured has created gaping holes in her memory.

As Kay begins the work of piecing herself back together she discovers the deep sense of belonging that can only be found on the streets of New York City. In the process she falls beautifully, ridiculously in love with the bustling landscape, and realizes that the places we love do not always love us back but can still somehow save us in weird, unexpected ways.

At once heartbreaking and uplifting, This Beautiful, Ridiculous City explores the relationship between trauma and truth, displacement and belonging, and what it means to forge a life of one’s own.

Kay Sohini is a writer and artist based in New York. She has a PhD from Stony Brook University, where she drew her doctoral dissertation ＂Drawing Unbelonging＂ as a comic, which received a research grant from the Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, Women Write About Comics, and The Nib, and has been commissioned by clients such as NYC Department of Education, NRDC, OER Project, and UCR School of Medicine, among others. This Beautiful, Ridiculous City is her first book.