Béatrice #[nn]

Joris Mertens's *Béatrice* draws you straight into a crowded, warmly lit café — a bustling room of patrons, glasses raised and conversations flowing — where one young woman in a vivid red jacket stands out with quiet intensity amid the sketchy, atmospheric monochrome crowd around her. The contrast between her sharp color and the loose, dreamy rendering of everything else gives the cover an almost cinematic pull, with a chandelier overhead and a busy street visible through the large café windows beyond. Published by Rue de Sèvres in 2020, this is European graphic storytelling at its most atmospherically assured.