I like to buy copies of the graphic novel "This One Summer" by Mariko Tamaki just to give to friends. This is a much smaller stakes story but it is very intimately and thoughtfully conveyed, with excellent dreamy-but-grounded panelling. Very short volume but tightly written. For manga, I love Berserk like everyone else here but I'll recommend something a little different since you brought up Maus which is very different and about more personal and meditative themes. The works of Daisuke Igarashi are each the most maturely written and elegantly drawn mangas I've read. Children of the Sea is a good one to start with. The most tightly written manga I've ever read is called Blue Giant, which although is a much more simple story about a jazz musician, is very confident in its storytelling.