Publisher's Weekly Review
The depths of love and longing are plumbed in this brief and bittersweet tale by Italian illustrator/cartoonist Fior, which won Best Book at the Angoulême Comics Festival in 2011. Lucia and Piero are lovers, but not the starry-eyed sort. They meet as teenagers, enjoy an intense attraction, and eventually drift apart. Their ambitions take them to Egypt, Norway, and into the arms of other people, yet the memory of their time together lingers on. Achingly vivid jewel tones provide sumptuous visuals: Piero and Lucia's heady younger years are a riot of chartreuse and lemon yellow, their reunion a moody meditation in oak brown and dusky cerulean. Fior has a knack for capturing the charming awkwardness of infatuation-nimbly translated by Richards-which he applies to both the earnest beginning of Lucia and Piero's romance and its melancholic final chapter. This story is full of unadulterated emotion, as stingingly sad as it is deeply hopeful. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In the courtyard of an Italian apartment building, teenager Piero falls instantly in love with new neighbor Lucia, much to the derision of his bold sidekick, Nicola. Their meeting ends the first chapter, and years pass between each of the four subsequent chapters. Locations change drastically, too, as Lucia leaves Italy to study in Sweden, and Piero works as an archaeologist in Egypt. Nicola, whom we hear about only later, stays behind. While apart, Piero and Lucia continue to think of one another as they marry other people, have children, and explore their new worlds. In an intricate, watery-inked style, Fior, also an architect, has an equally deft hand for the concrete and the conceptual; detailed scenery and simple, emotional faces are equally affecting. Color stars, too, as Fior stretches his vivid, limited palettes a new one for each chapter to their limits. A prize-winner when it was first published in Italy in 2011, this is a must-have for collections serving enthusiastic graphic novel readerships.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Fior's internationally acclaimed 5,000 km Per Second is finally released to American audiences. Telling the story of a relationship's before and after, the book begins with a glance exchanged between teenagers Piero and Lucia and ends with a wine-soaked encounter between the two in middle age. The intervening chapters provide little detail about their actual bond. Instead, readers feel the reverberations of that initial encounter throughout the couple's lives. Painted in vivid watercolors, the artwork does most of the storytelling. From the warm leafy yellows of Italy and cool blues of wintry Norway to the ochres and umbers of Egypt, Fior's palette deftly evokes setting. Revealing gestures conjure mood and tell more about the characters than do their words. Textual compositions propel the plot forward and subtly highlight the very human dynamics. Verdict Wistful and poignant, this work will appeal to readers who enjoy less action and more emotion in their graphic novels, or anyone seeking an artistic masterpiece.-E.W. Genovese, Andrew Bayne Memorial Lib., Pittsburgh © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
