The setting: A boys' boarding school in Germany, sometime in the mid-20th century. One winter day, fourteen-year-old Thomas Werner falls from a lonely pedestrian overpass to his death, immediately after mailing a single, brief letter to another boy at the school:

To Juli, one last time.
This is my love.
This is the sound of my heart.
Surely you must understand.

Thus begins Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas – one of the most compelling and enigmatic manga graphic novels ever created, and a pioneer in the popular boys'-romance "shounen-ai" genre. Thomas's death (was it an accident? suicide? or even murder?) immediately throws the school into turmoil, while his letter sets off a chain of emotional upheaval both for the recipient and an even-expanding circle of friends, family, and teachers, as secrets are revealed and shared. And then a new boy who looks exactly like Thomas shows up at the school...

Unabashedly romantic and emotionally complex, The Heart of Thomas features an unusual, richly imagined setting and a cast of memorable characters.

(Source: Fantagraphics)

Featured in volumes 11 and 12 of the Hagio Moto Works:

1. Bianka
2. Tou no Aru Ie
3. Cake Cake Cake
4. Sara Hill no Seiya
5. Sangatsu Usagi ga Shuudande
6. Poe no Ichizoku 1
7. Poe no Ichizoku 2
8. Poe no Ichizoku 3
9. Poe no Ichizoku 4
10. Cabbage Hata no Isan Souzokunin
11. Thomas no Shinzou 1
12. Thomas no Shinzou 2
13. 11-nin Iru!
14. Zoku 11-nin Iru!: Higashi no Chihei, Nishi no Towa
15. Kono Musume Urimasu!
16. Tottemo Shiawase Moto-chan
17. American Pie