One fine comic book Marjane Satrapi's "The Complete Persepolis" is the One Book, One Philadelphia winner. It's a hilarious and moving memoir of her Iranian girlhood - told in picture panels.

There's this misconception in the West that every Iranian is scum, that all men force women into marriages, then beat them, and that everybody is a fanatic. It's like arguing that Western society is typified by the Inquisition.

- Marjane Satrapi

Next year, Philadelphians will have the chance to think, discuss, and argue all things Iranian, thanks to Iranian-French author Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, The Complete Persepolis, which will be announced today as the selection for the 2010 One Book, One Philadelphia.

"Marjane's book was a natural choice given the recent events in Iran," said Marie Field, chair of the citywide literacy program cosponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Mayor's Office. "We felt that the Iranian elections and the protests that followed made this a perfect time for the book." The presidential vote was in June.

One Book, which is entering its eighth year, will feature more than 100 lectures, discussion groups, and workshops at numerous venues throughout the city. Organizers also will help coordinate high school programs for students in 10th grade and up.

"We are distributing 5,000 copies [of Persepolis] to every city library and at least one class in every public high school in the district," said Gerri Trooskin, the One Book project manager at the Free Library. She added that charter schools and Catholic high schools also will participate.

Satrapi will launch the program with a lecture Sept. 23 at the Central Library, 19th and Vine Streets.

"I'm extremely honored to be chosen," Satrapi, 39, said on the phone from Paris, her home for the last 15 years. "I know the program in Philadelphia is an important one."

First published in France in 2000 to rave reviews, Persepolis has become an international hit. In 2007, Satrapi added filmmaker to her resume when she released an animated version of the book.

Persepolis is a riveting, deeply moving - and wildly humorous - memoir of the author's experiences as a girl growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the traumatic years she spent at an Austrian high school, and the growth of her political consciousness as a college student back in Iran. (Satrapi eventually emigrated to France in 1994).