In her grandmother’s beach house in Portugal, Júlia attempts to deal with the loss of her husband Paolo by keeping his garden going in the backyard. One night, an animal tears up the garden by the roots leaving her apoplectic and convinced of the creature’s vile motives. Júlia is absolutely convinced the creature is a mongoose, and hell bent on destroying it. Her brother Joel, recently jobless and broken up with, moves in with Júlia for a new start. While he doesn’t believe that the damage is actually the fault of a mongoose, he and his sister slowly begin to understand one another and the weird things that grief does to a person.
Creator Joana Mosi’s The Mongoose explores the weird little things we do as human beings when confronted by grief. Locked in her anger, Júlia focuses on a possible fictional villain to direct her grief and frustration away from her daily life, but instead falls farther and farther into it. The art is simple and stylish, the story full of universal truths about the nature of emotion and grief. It is a beautiful graphic novel and a quick read.
The Mongoose is available from Pow Pow press October 14, 2025.
