Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12701 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Synopsis
In late 1991 and early 1992, at the time of the first Intifada, Joe Sacco spent two months with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, travelling and taking notes. Upon returning to the United States, he started writing and drawing Palestine, which combines the techniques of eyewitness reportage with the medium of comic-book storytelling to explore this complex, emotionally weighty situation. He captures the heart of the Palestinian experience in image after unforgettable image, with great insight and remarkable humour. The nine-issue comics series won a 1996 American Book Award. It is now published for the first time in one volume, befitting its status as one of the great classics of graphic non-fiction.

About the Author
Joe Sacco was born in Malta and lives in Queens, New York. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism. As well as the award-winning Palestine, his other book, Safe Area: Gorazde, about his time in Bosnia, won the Will Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001. In 2001 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on his next project.

Customer Reviews

Shocking
This was my first venture into graphic novels. All my life i've never been able to get into fiction, I'd stick to books on religion, war etc so when a friend pointed out that there are graphic novels/comics based on real events I thought I'd give it a go (I always assumed graphics novels were about fantasy figures/men in tight spandex outfits throwing balls of fire at women with blue hair)

I read "Palestine" in about 5 sittings, I read it before bed for about an hour each night until I was too tired, I couldn't put it down. Some of the interviews/reports really did shock me and I had to put it down a couple of times. Not just the stories themselves shocked me but the fact that I had no idea these events happened/are happening. Can't recommened this enough.

An important book
An outstanding, sensitive and compelling work. Be in no doubt, this is not a graphic novel. Sacco is a superb journalist who conveys the experiences of long-suffering Palesenians through remarkable illustrated interviews, but the illustrations serve simply to contextualise these harrowing true stories. If only this were required reading for the Bush administration...

Offers a real insight
This book offers an insight into the lives of the palestinians, it offers you the side of the story that is not told by the mainstream press. From what you learn about the terrible treatement of the palestinians, the israeli aggression and opression towards them one realises why they resort to such terrible things such as suicide bombing. This book instills sympathy for palestinians and automatically makes you hate all injustice in the world.

from reading this book, one cannot help to think that the israelis have only brought this on themselves, any suicide bombing (which of course is wrong) is only as a result of their inhumane ill-treatement of the palestinians, and they only have themselves to blame. Reading this book one realises the origins of the arab hatred toward the state of israel.