A twisted love triangle

Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds is a story in which two strangers unite in their quest to locate a missing third party. The graphic novel’s young protagonist, Koby Franco, is contacted by the girl he later learns is his father’s lover when she fears him to be dead. Although Koby’s dad, Gabriel, is a central character in the story, there’s no point in time where he is physically present – it’s almost as if he’s a phantom. Even when we learn that he is in fact alive, there’s no tangible proof of his existence, other than the word of his latest paramour. After all the effort that Koby and his father’s former lover, Numi, go through to locate Gabriel, neither ever actually find him. Their search isn’t entirely fruitless, however, because both make certain unexpected discoveries about Gabriel that provide them with some sense of closure, even if it wasn’t what they were hoping for when they set out on their journey.

The first time Numi gets insight into Gabriel’s true character is when she and Koby visit a woman named Atara Dayan, who was present during the suicide bombing in Hadera, which is the last place where Gabriel was thought to be alive. What Numi thinks is her last chance at finding the man she loves turns out to be the turning point in which she realizes that Gabriel isn’t the man she thought he was. Upon meeting Atara, Numi finds out that the other woman was romantically involved with Gabriel at the same time she was; both women believed themselves to be important to Gabriel, yet he abandons both of them without any explanation. To rub salt in Numi’s wound, Atara reveals that the scarf Numi brought with her – the one Numi made for Gabriel and the one she saw on television after the bombing, causing her to think Gabriel was dead – belongs to her. In the fourth panel on page 127, Atara holds the scarf up to her face, clutching it close, which signifies that it means a great deal to her. A tear escapes her eye, showing that even though he left her, she still has strong feelings for Gabriel. In the next panel, Atara says that Gabriel gave her the scarf, although she has no idea that its maker is standing right in front of her. Gabriel’s gesture makes it clear that Numi’s gift wasn’t special to him or else he wouldn’t have given it to his other mistress, who he didn’t respect enough to give a reason as to why he left without saying goodbye.

While Numi discovers that the man she loves was unfaithful to her during a significant portion of their relationship, Koby also learns that his father is more likely to run from his problems than confront them straight-on. After a long, unsuccessful search for his father, Koby gets a clue to Gabriel’s whereabouts and decides to follow up on his lead alone. When he goes to look for his dad, Koby instead meets his new step-mother, whose description of Gabriel makes it seem as if he’s a changed man. When his father is over two hours late coming home for dinner, it is apparent that some things never change. Just when Koby thought he finally found his father after two years of not speaking to him, Gabriel once again manages to evade him. It’s almost as if Gabriel has a sixth sense that lets him know when his son is getting close to finding him so he knows when to stay away. What Koby soon realizes is that his unfinished business isn’t with his father, but rather with Numi. Koby and Numi spent the majority of their time together searching for Gabriel, but in the end, they found each other.