Life-Affirming Anti-Romance Graphic Novel Addresses Homelessness And That Perennial Search For Love

Pamela Green is a middle-class, middle-aged romance novelist with writer’s block and a lonely heart. ‘Cougar’ is the street name of a teenage runaway from Ireland, surviving life on London’s streets by his wits, and his looks.

Their lives and lifestyles couldn’t be more different. Meeting under extraordinary circumstances, this odd couple gradually comes to realize that they have more in common than loneliness and desperation: both need love. May to September, an unlikely and unconventional relationship develops between Pamela and Cougar, one that eventually propels each into pastures new.

London-based artist and writer ILYA has created an ultimately life-affirming anti-romance, one that takes us from seedy Soho nightlife to the leafy suburbs of North London. Room For Love is a hard-hitting exploration of how personal crises can lead to emotional and physical isolation, but also how the urban social environment inevitably shapes psychology and human relations.

Inspired both by real-life events and personal experience, Room For Love addresses issues surrounding homelessness, plus it reflects on the search for love irrespective of difference in age, class, religion or even sexuality. It shares themes in common with films such as The Graduate, The Mother and the forthcoming Adore, as well as plays such as the recently staged Sweet Bird of Youth. Room For Love is an intimately intense drama that takes us from the darker shadows of human nature to an enlightened sense of self.

ROOM FOR LOVE
Published in hardback 15th November
ISBN 978-1-90683-87-20
Full Colour / 128 pages / RRP £14.99