Footnotes in Gaza - by Joe Sacco (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Sacco brings the conflict down to the most human level, allowing us to imagine our way inside it, to make the desperation he discovers, in some small way, our own."--Los Angeles Times

Rafah, a town at the bottommost tip of the Gaza Strip, has long been a notorious flashpoint in the bitter Middle East conflict. Buried deep in the archives is one bloody incident, in 1956, that left 111 Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Seemingly a footnote to a long history of killing, that day in Rafah--cold-blooded massacre or dreadful mistake--reveals the competing truths that have come to define an intractable war.

In a quest to get to the heart of what happened, Joe Sacco immerses himself in the daily life of Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Younis, uncovering Gaza past and present. As in Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde, his unique visual journalism renders a contested landscape in brilliant, meticulous detail. Spanning fifty years, moving fluidly between one war and the next, Footnotes in Gaza--Sacco's most ambitious work to date--transforms a critical conflict of our age into intimate and immediate experience.

Review Quotes

"[A] gripping, important book...Sacco will find readers for Footnotes in Gaza far into the future because of the unique format and style of his comic-book narrative. He stands alone as a reporter-cartoonist because his ability to tell a story through his art is combined with investigative reporting of the highest quality."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Solid, old-fashioned war reporting... a superb way into the truth of events, understanding different sides and poking around in people's minds and houses. Unlike a war photographer, Sacco always gets the best shot, perfectly framed, sometimes years after the event. Unlike a writer, he adds facial expressions to each statement. And unlike a film maker, he can slip between past and present without the jolt of costumed docudrama.... I learned more about the Palestinians, war, the intifada and the best honey pastries in Gaza than I ever had from newspapers or television."
--The Times (UK)

"Having already established his reputation as the world's leading comics journalist, Sacco is now making a serious case to be considered one of the world's top journalists, period. His newest undertaking is a bracing quest to uncover the truth about what happened in two Gaza Strip towns in 1956... Sacco's art is alternately epic and intimate, but it's his exacting and harrowing interviews that make this book an invaluable and wrenching piece of journalism."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The first good news to report about the massive, fascinating new Footnotes in Gaza hardcover is that the cartoonist is in top form throughout. If there's something that Joe Sacco's done in a previous comic that you've liked or with which you've been impressed, then that same technique or approach is likely to be on display here in a comparable or more effective way... A story soaked to the marrow with heartbreaking insights... One of the best long-form comics of this decade, and Sacco's greatest work to date."
--The Comics Reporter

About the Author

Joe Sacco, one of the world's foremost cartoonists, 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 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, and Harper's. He lives in Portland, Oregon.