10 Graphic Novels From & About The Middle East
Graphic novels are a deeply expressive, compelling and human medium. Combining the power of storytelling with personal illustrations, this is a genre that is for all ages. We recently had the pleasure of welcoming award winning graphic novelist, journalist and cartoonist Malaka Gharib onto our Book Club podcast. We really enjoyed our discussion with Malaka and got inspired to put together a list of 10 graphic novels from and about the region. And if you’ve got any recommendations you think we’ve missed, comment them below!
It Won’t Always Be Like This
Malaka Gharib
This is an intimate and deeply personal graphic memoir by Malaka Gharib (who we interviewed on our podcast). It Won’t Always Be Like This follows an young American girl as she grows up with her Egyptian father’s new family and navigates teenagehood in a new country. Drawing on her own memories, Malaka Gharib draws a vivid picture of adolescence, family and searching for identity.
Bye Bye Babylon: Beirut (1975 - 1979)
Lamia Ziadé
Bye Bye Babylon: Beirut (1975 - 1979) recounts Lamia Ziadé’s experience of Beirut before and during the Lebanese civil war, through a child’s eyes. This graphic novel visually delineates the city’s golden days from its devastation through the war. A unique graphic memoir, this is an ‘important visual record of a terrible war’.
A Game for Swallows, To Die, To Leave, To Return
Zeina Abirached
A Game for Swallows is a visual account of Zeina Abirached’s childhood growing up in 1980s East-Beirut. The story is contained to a single afternoon in 1984 as Abirached and her brother tensely wait for their parents to return from visiting their grandmother in West Beirut.
Baddawi
Leila Abdelrazaq
Baddawi follows Ahmad, a young Palestinian boy growing up in Baddawi, a refugee camp in North Lebanon. Ahmad represents Leila Abdelrazaq’s father. Through his eyes, Abdelrazaq paints a compelling portrait of the region in the 60s and 70s, intertwined with a coming of age narrative arc.
The Arab of the Future
Riad Sattouf
The Arab of the Future is an award-winning graphic memoir by Riad Sattouf, a French-Syrian cartoonist. The memoir is written in 5 volumes. Each volume tracks a different moment in Sattouf’s own childhood between France, Libya and Syria, ‘under the shadow of 3 dictators - Muamma Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father.’ This is a memoir that is deeply compelling, human, and at moments funny.
Arab in America
Toufic El Rassi
Arab in America is a visual account of Toufic El Rassi’s own lived experiences growing up in the states as an Arab. Throughout the novel, El Rassi sheds light on the deeply embedded prejudice and discrimination that both Arabs and Muslims confront in the US. The book also grapples with modern Middle Eastern history and the role of Western media in disseminating damaging stereotypes of Arab-Americans.
Inside the Giant Fish
Rawand Issa
Inside the Giant Fish by Rawand Issa is a fusion of a coming-of-age story and a narrative that examines the impact of the privatization of Lebanon’s public beaches on the locals of El Jiyeh. A girl searches for her lost memories on a beach that no longer exists.
Poppies of Iraq
Brigitte Findakly & Lewis Trondheim
Poppies of Iraq recounts Brigitte Findakly’s childhood in Iraq. Co-written and drawn with her husband, the novel ties together personal memories, politics and Saddam Hussein, and the history of Orthodox Christians in the Arab world. The memoir also grapples with what it means to be physically apart from one’s homeland and yet feel such a strong affinity and connection to it.
The Apartment in Bab El Louk
Donia Maher and Ganzeer
Written by Donia Maher and illustrated by Ganzeer, The Apartment in Bab El Louk is a short graphic novel. In just a short time, this compact story gives the reader a quick taste of downtown Cairo through the eyes of an old recluse living in Bab El Louk.
Ganzeer joined us on the afikra podcast back in December 2022. You can check out our conversation here.
Metro: A Story of Cairo
Magdy El Shafee
Metro highlights the financial social insecurity faced by youth in Cairo. Through the novel, we get a feel for the systemic societal issues Egypt is facing, and the sense that a reckoning is on the horizon. Published three years before the Arab Spring, Metro was banned in Egypt. It was republished after a long trial in 2012.
If you have a graphic novel recommendation to add to this list, comment below! And if you haven’t had the chance yet, be sure to watch our conversation with award-winning graphic novelist Malaka Gharib.