São Paulo – Born in Paris, the son of a Syrian intellectual and a French mother, Riad Sattouf lived in a different world from the one he was used to as a child when, in the 70s and 80s, his parents moved from France to Syria and Libya. Sattouf used the memories from this period to write and illustrate the book “The Arab of the Future – A Youth in the Middle East”, which was published in France last year and in Brazil at the end of April by Intrínseca publishing house.
The comic book is the first volume of an autobiography. Now 36 years old and with 17 books published already, Sattouf is a comic artists and filmmakers. For eight years, he signed a weekly comic strip called “The Secret Life of the Youth” in French magazine Charlie Hebdo. A few months ago, however, he left the magazine to attend to other works, according to Intrínseca.
The comic book portrays the interaction of Sattouf as a child with the Arab world. It’s the account of a Western boy about his contact with the culture of the Middle East. The narrative tells a little of the history of the period, focusing, for instance, on the French socialism under François Mitterrand and the dictatorships of Hafez al-Assad in Syria and Muamar Kadafi in Libya. The comic artist started to write after the civil war in Syria broke out in 2011, when he rescued family members from Homs, in the Arab country.
The title of the book, as explained by the author in interviews when it was published in France, came from his father’s obsession, a strong advocate of the Pan-Arabism that preached about education being the answer for the Middle East to escape the religious obscurantism. He wanted to help create the Arab of the future, one with a conception of progress allied with some traditions.
The book was already sold to 14 countries, according to Intrínseca, which heard about the work because of the repercussion in France when the book came out. “Despite not having a collection of graphic novels, we believe that The Arab of the Future would fit perfectly in Intrínseca’s portfolio because it discuss important current issues, such as the multiculturalism and a sense of belonging, all through a peculiar and creative perspective”, said to ANBA, via email, the purchases editor of the publishing company, Lucas Telles.
The comic book was translated to Portuguese from the French by Débora Fleck and Intrínseca is set to publish the other volumes of the trilogy, which will follow the one-book-a-year timeline in France. The Brazilian publisher plans to also follow this timeline for the launchings in Brazil according to the purchases editor.
Telles believes that the book won’t be limited to graphic novels fans, which also was not the case in France. “The majority of readers of The Arab of the Future over there declared never to have read a work of this genre. We hope to replicate this experience with the Brazilian readers, since we believe that Riad Sattouf’s book will be able to please those interested in current and cultural issues, in autobiographies and, of course, fans of graphic novels”, said the editor.
Datasheet:
Comic book The Arab of the Future – A Youth in the Middle East
Author: Riad Sattouf
Publishing house: Intrínseca
Translation: Debora Fleck
Pages: 160
Genre: Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-85-8057-693-1
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
