It seemed inevitable that Europe would once again be in the dark clutches of war, and now that conflict has broken out, Spirou must face its horrible reality while staying true to himself. He does his best to maintain his friendship with Fantasio, even as the latter enlists in the Belgian army. And when Spirou meets Felix, a German‐Jewish painter, his eyes are opened to the plight of the Jewish people and the dangerous situation in Europe and beyond. On top of all that, Spirou's girlfriend Kassandra has been lost in the confusion of the war. In the first of four volumes, the orphan bellhop's adventures will take him all across war-torn Belgium, discovering the world as it falls apart around him."The promotional copy on the back of the book describes Hope Against All Odds as "a humanist tragicomedy in four volumes". This first volume lives up to that tagline. It is a beautifully constructed, sometimes charming, sometimes chilling, comic that looks at a difficult time in a nation's past, square in the eye in a compassionate, honest and accessible way." Down the Tubes

The dark days of war are not getting any brighter in occupied Brussels. Spirou and Fantasio are on the brink of hunger and homelessness, but their ingenuity and gumption allow them to survive. While our two heroes are bringing what joy they can to the children of Belgium, the iron fist of the Nazis is tightening its grip on the country. The villainy of the oppressor hits close to home as Spirou's friends start becoming its direct victims. We know how the war ends; unfortunately for Spirou, he does not, and in its midst, his virtue and good intentions might lead him straight to the worst of its horrors.