Robert Mgrdich Apelian Auctions YA Graphic Novel Fustuk to Penguin

Robert Mgrdich Apelian has auctioned off the North American right to his YA graphic novel Fustuk to Rachel Sonis at Penguin Workshop. Described as a Ghibli-esque Persian/Armenian YA fantasy graphic novel Fustuk about family, food, and cultural identity in a diaspora, set in a fantastical version of the Persian Empire. That follows 17-year-old Kouchka Fustuk, the youngest of three dysfunctional siblings in a family of chefs who strike a deal with a Djinn to save their dying mother — but only if they can step out of the shadow of their legendary father and cook a dish to rival his.

Publication of Fustuk is set for the autumn of 2025 and Robert Mgrdich Apelia’s agent Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency did the deal. Here’s a preview of the graphic novel. You can see more examples of artwork from the graphic novel on his Instagram page.

Penguin Workshop states that they “make great books for every kind of reader, from birth to age twelve. Here, you’ll find unique board books, beautiful picture books, laugh-out-loud chapter books, the New York Times Best-Selling Who HQ series, Mad Libs, and Penguin’s award-winning leveled reader program. We make readers laugh. We make readers feel accomplished. We make readers.”

Penguin Books is a British publishing house founded in 1935 with initial success that demonstrated large audiences existed for serious books. It is now an imprint of the Penguin Random House, a global conglomerate formed in 2013 by merginf with the American publisher Random House, a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Since April 2020, Penguin Random House has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann.