São Paulo – Volume four of ‘The Arab of the Future 4: A Graphic Memoir of a Childhood in the Middle East (1987-1992)’ is due out in Brazil next July. It’s an autobiographical piece by the French-born Riad Sattouf, whose family moved to Libya and then Syria while he was a kid. The son to a French mother and a Syrian father, he recounts his boyhood days in those Arab countries.
Pictured above is a portrayal of the author’s first move, from Paris to Tripoli. The fourth volume in the comic book series is an at times humorous depiction of the boy, who’s now 10. His perspective matures with each new volume, as does the boy himself, and themes range from the West and the Arab world to globalization. .
Riad Sattouf’s plotline enmeshes the cultural insights he had in new countries and family life itself. They move along with the father, who was invited to teach at the University of Libya and then in Syria. Here, we come to the 1990s as we’re presented with little Riad’s family dynamics, school rivalries, and love.
‘The Arab of the Future’ is out in Brazil from publisher Intrínseca, which premiered the series in 2015. It has since sold over 2 million copies. The first volume in the series won the Fauve d’Or, the grand prize of the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France.
Sattouf is the author of 16 other books. He’s also a playwright and screenwriter. His first feature film, Les beaux gosses (2009), won the César Award for Best First Feature Film and was nominated for the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
