Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a two-part graphic novel by the artist Art Spiegelman. It centres around his father, Vladek, a Jewish Auschwitz survivor; Spiegelman taped interviews with him, and then translated them into a comic strip where the Jews are mice and the Nazis are cats.

From an outsider's perspective, this would seem to trivialise the atrocities he's relaying - but Maus turns out to be a very respectful, powerful work that not only takes in the concentration camp itself, but its effect on future generations in the survivors' families. The second volume also deals with the idea of the artist riding on the holocaust for success - something Steven Spielberg caught a lot of flak for with Schindler's List - and ultimately sees him coming to terms with his heritage.

There's also a CD-ROM edition by Voyager, complete with the audio interviews with Vladek, close-up versions of each panel and assorted sources. However, as with most works of literature, the effect is greatest and most immediate when reading it from the printed page.

(The combined edition's ISBN number is 0679748407. It's published by Pantheon Books.)