Noel loves AC/DC, his guitar, roasting marshmallows (and burning them), and his mom, with whom he lives in Berlin. Then one day tragedy strikes, and suddenly everything in the boy's world changes. A bearded man takes him to a very special place: for Noel, who is intensely bound to routine, the entire world shifts. Arrival at Neuerkerode, an evangelical community in northern Germany, marks the beginning of a new life. No longer sheltered behind the walls of home, Noel finds himself living alongside caregivers and other young people with various disabilities. Facing the outside world means encountering heartbreak, loss, abandonment, and suffering of every kind—and enormous difficulty. But for the boy, it is also a chance for new friendships, laughter, new encounters. A chance to build his own idea of what happiness looks like.
All of this unfolds in Learning to Fall (Bao Publishing, 2020, translated by Giordana Rossetti), the debut graphic novel by young Mikael Ross. It is a story free of sentimentality—one that speaks of disability and fragility through plot, dialogue, and image with genuine honesty. It speaks of growing up with luminous irony, with a gentle joy that does not hide the climb, the limits, or the wounds.