From the ground-breaking graphics journalist and author of Palestine, a revelatory investigation of the deadly sectarian riots in 2013 Uttar Pradesh, India, and their urgent global significance today
Compared to other episodes of lethal Indian communal violence, the clashes in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the Muzaffarnagar Riot, were a relatively small-scale affair. It had happened before and will probably happen again: Hindus and Muslims, armed with guns and swords, riled up by vitriolic rhetoric and a tangle of accusations, turn on one another. The truth fragments along religious lines, both in the lead-up to the rampage and in its bloody aftermath.
Joe Sacco immerses himself in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to government officials, political leaders, village chiefs, and especially the victims, who were mostly landless peasants, in a quest to understand this riot as an archetype of political violence. In the process, he probes the role of savagery in a democracy; the power of crowds, rather than leaders, to influence the course of events; the collision of competing narratives; and the accounts that perpetrators construct to explain away their participation in bloodshed.
Sacco has chronicled the urgent histories that define the world around us, from the Great War to Gaza. Here, the award winning cartoonist turns his masterful visual reportage to a story that is specific to India but with implications and resonance for us all.
PRAISE FOR JOE SACCO:
'One of the masters of his craft' New Statesman
'A pioneer of the genre' TLS
'Formidably talented.' Independent
'The hands-down boss of his particular corner of contemporary literature' Dazed & Confused
'Sacco's brilliant, excruciating books of war reportage are potent territory... He shows how much that is crucial to our lives a book can hold' New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Joe Sacco, one of the world's greatest cartoonists, is widely hailed as the creator of war reportage comics. He is the author of, among other books, Palestine, which received the American Book Award, and Safe Area- Gorazde, which won the Eisner Award and was named a New York Times notable book and Time magazine's best comic book of 2000.
His books have been translated into fourteen languages and his comics reporting has appeared in Details, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Harper's and the Guardian. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Industry Reviews
Meticulous and beautifully crafted... he proffers a convincing thesis about how politicians leverage violence to fan the flames of old conflicts that then beget new violence. Paying homage to the importance of seeking truth, however elusive, this timely work is as powerful as it is artful
Publishers Weekly
Another masterpiece of graphic non-fiction from Joe Sacco
The Bookseller
A masterclass in visual reportage... There’s wit and realism in the panels and art. It’s dynamic and clear... The graphic novel – a wholly unsatisfactory descriptor – can contain all the complexity of a tumultuous politics. In an era when long-form journalism is under pressure, and political analysis filleted to morsels, Sacco’s work is a lifeline.
Adam Rutherford, Guardian
Excellent... This is a graphic novel for the reader who wants to understand the human psyche, and to deep-dive into the machinations of systemic government power... A complex multi-threaded story of genuine interest. It looks great, and you might learn something about the Muzaffarnagar riot, India, corruption, and yourself.
Down the Tubes
The Once and Future Riot digs with careful persistence into communal violence in northern India
Guardian, *Books of the Year*
[A] kaleidoscopic narrative… [Sacco’s] precisely etched close-ups capture the rang of emotions…of his interviewees
Times Literary Supplement
