The characters are based on people she knew growing up, but the situations are purely fictional.

Ībouet denies that Aya is autobiographical, except in the sense that it depicts the Ivory Coast that she is familiar with. The story has been adapted into an animated film co-directed by Abouet. Her characters attend school, trudge to work, plan for the future and are ensnared in domestic entanglements on the Ivory Coast in the same way as happens everywhere else. It also emerged from her desire to show an Africa with a focus on issues other than war and famine, which is typically what the media focus on in portraying Africa. She was influenced to do a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis. It is also her first venture into graphic novels, as well as a collaborative effort with her husband, for whom Aya was his first illustrating job in graphic novels. Aya Īya is Abouet's first published work. She left her job as a legal assistant to concentrate on writing full-time, including her two follow-up graphic novels to Aya ( Aya of Yop City and Aya: The Secrets Come Out). Abouet had tried to write novels for young people, but she gave up in frustration with what she perceived to be the constraints put on the genre by the publishers. She worked as a legal assistant in Paris while writing her first graphic novel, Aya. She currently lives in Romainville, a suburb of Paris, with her husband, illustrator Clément Oubrerie (who illustrates her graphic concepts), and their young son. Biography Ībouet was born in 1971 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and at the age of 12 she and her brother moved to France to their great uncle. Marguerite Abouet (born 1971) is an Ivorian writer of bandes dessinées, best known for her graphic novel series Aya. 'Rising Star Award for Best Self-Publisher' Glyph Comics Awards (2008) Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for First Comic Book (2006)

Aya abouet