A.D. In the News, on the Bestseller List

September 4th, 2009 by Larry Smith  

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge has had quite a sprint since its release on August 18. When Josh Neufeld began his book tour I warned him: book tours aren’t necessarily a great way to sell books. No matter how much love and media a project gets, authors often end up reading a book, or discussing their work to just a handful of people. The good news is that didn’t happen at all with A.D. Josh has discussed the making of A.D. to packed houses from New York to New Orleans, selling hundreds of books and having dozens and dozens of conversations about how much the work, and the region that inspired it, mean to them. The above photo is from Octavia Books in New Orleans, where A.D. shares a special place in the hearts of locals as Dave Eggers’ masterful Zeitoun.

The media coverage has been more than just wide-ranging, it’s been thoughtful. In a huge piece that led the New York Times’ Arts section, George Gustines reconstructs the path that took A.D. from web to print, writing that A.D. shows “the magnitude of the catastrophe … on a personal level.”

In a wonderful interview about A.D. with Josh and one of the characters, Leo McGovern, on NPR’s “Tell Me More,” host Linda Wertheimer suggests that, “It seems that the people in the book gradually seem to recover their balance, but I think your book really brings home to me how very pervasive the sense of loss was and still is in New Orleans.” That sentiment, is exactly what both Josh and I hoped to convey as readers click on the last panel, or turn the last page of A.D. Listen to the story or read the transcript on the NPR site.

Finally, we’re so excited that A.D. has landed on the New York Times Bestseller list in the graphic books category for the second week in a row. For the week of September 13, it’s #4, one of the few graphic books not about Batman. It’s a fitting place for a book with seven very real superheroes who go by the names Leo, Michelle, Denise, Kwame, Abbas, Darnell, and The Doctor.

One Response

  1. Joanna

    I’ve just watched Josh Neufeld speaking about AD on
    BookTV. I loved his explanation of working with
    the people who became characters in the book.
    Now I must read it.
    Yeah comics!

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