The 2026 Paris Book Festival celebrates comics

2. “I always dreamed of being a farmer”, by Jean Harambat

Present at the Paris Book Festival 2026.
Ed. Dargaud, 112 p.; €23.95. From 15 years old.

Jean Harambat comes from peasant lines in the southwest of France. He studied philosophy, before becoming a comic strip author. But he kept a dream, which he confesses in the title of this album: that of “being a farmer”.

One day, he moved with his wife to an old Gascon farm that needed to be renovated. Here he is busy taking care of the horses, planting cabbages, rebuilding a roof, observing a warbler. The opportunity to meet neighbors who come to lend a hand, but also to reflect on manual gestures, the history of the peasantry, the imperfection of our lives, and death.

Over the course of short, beautifully drawn chapters, we meet Ulysses, Montaigne, old cowboys, and we learn a thousand things about beekeeping, architecture and botany. An ode to life, nature, slowness and contemplation.

Victor Macé de Lépinay

Our opinion: PP