The Flavors of Iraq
Impressions of My Vanished Homeland
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The Western media largely glossed over the immense human suffering that occurred in Iraq during the embargo of the 1990s and the Iraq War. With this innovative and award-winning graphic novel, French-Iraqi journalist Feurat Alani sets that record straight.
The Flavors of Iraq unfolds as a series of one thousand tweets. In them, Alani describes his experiences in Iraq from 1989, when he traveled from France to meet his extended family in Iraq for the first time, to 2011, when the last Americans pulled out of the country. Alani recounts the vivid impressions this place made on him as a child—its wondrous colors, tastes, and smells. And he documents the sounds, silences, and smells of a war in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians lost their lives.
Illustrated by the striking art of Léonard Cohen and with a foreword by Ross Caputi, a former US Marine who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2006, The Flavors of Iraq tells a poetic and powerful story of an oppressed population, an illegal war, and a country that no longer exists.
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Information
Table of contents
- COVER Front
- Copyright Page
- Chapter 1: My first trip to Iraq. The taste of apricot. “Never say Saddam’s name."
- Chapter 2: The summer ends in Baghdad. When I return to France, my friends tell me all about their vacations atthe beach.
- Chapter 3: If you really appreciate someone,you say “A khaliq ala rassi,” or “I’ll put you on my head."
- Chapter 4: A question from the disillusioned teenager I’ve become: Why was I born in France instead of Iraq?
- Chapter 5: This is how I write my first newsstories. Embedded with family going about their daily routines.
- Chapter 6: The IED: inside the house, thefoundation shakes. Out on the street, a blast of hot air in your face.
- Chapter 7: I often hang out at the neighborhood barbershop. It’s the ideal place to hear the latest news and rumors.
- Chapter 8: My Iraq is, above all, a bunch of smells. Sand, watermelon, masgouf, cardamom tea, sourdough rolls
- Chapter 9: Syria, a country at peace. A stable country back then. A country where the media had no worries. A wonderful country.
- Chapter 10: One evening, I summon the courage to tell them: “I’m an Iraqi.” They’re curious and flood me with questions.
- Acknowledgments