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Lebanon Is Burning and Other Dispatches
Voices from the Middle East on the fight for self-determination.
Much of the present discourse about the pro-democracy Arab uprisings of 2011 paints a bleak picture of their defeat. But the truth is more complicated, and moments of struggle and inspiration still recur despite the overwhelming odds against the movements’ success.
This collection of short comics documents the political and social unrest in the Middle East during the 2010s in such places as Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, and Bahrain. A collaboration between writer and journalist Yazan Al-Saadi and a lineup of stellar cartoonists from the region―including Tracy Chahwan, Ganzeer, Ghadi Ghosn, Omar Khouri, Sirène Moukheiber, Hicham Rahma, and Enas Satir―this graphic reportage serves as a witness to an era of counterrevolutionary resurgence in which entrenched powers clashed with the people’s struggle for self-determination.
Much of the present discourse about the pro-democracy Arab uprisings of 2011 paints a bleak picture of their defeat. But the truth is more complicated, and moments of struggle and inspiration still recur despite the overwhelming odds against the movements’ success.
This collection of short comics documents the political and social unrest in the Middle East during the 2010s in such places as Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, and Bahrain. A collaboration between writer and journalist Yazan Al-Saadi and a lineup of stellar cartoonists from the region―including Tracy Chahwan, Ganzeer, Ghadi Ghosn, Omar Khouri, Sirène Moukheiber, Hicham Rahma, and Enas Satir―this graphic reportage serves as a witness to an era of counterrevolutionary resurgence in which entrenched powers clashed with the people’s struggle for self-determination.
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 19, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 4, 2025
Yazan Al-Saadi takes you into the maelstrom of ME politics that is happening right now. Lebanon, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Sudan are examined from the perspective of the people who are suffering; suffering because of corrupt governments and suffering because of global indifference. If ANY of this were happening in (say) France there would be worldwide condemnation; but silence really does say so much when contextualized against business interests - a 'language' all countries 'speak'.
May 26, 2025
I grabbed Lebanon is Burning and Other Dispatches on a whim from the local library after they recently acquired a copy and wow. I didn't really go in with expectations, rather with a curiosity about the subject, but this was a truly excellent read that was emotional and highly informative.
A collection of graphic journalism, each chapter is about a different aspect of recent (in the last fifteen years) history of different parts of West Asia and North Africa. These graphic essays explore the oppression faced by locals from western imperialism and corrupt local governments, often focusing on the ways that locals on the ground have fought back against that oppression and resisted the domination of forces that don't care about their lives or wellbeing in any way. Countries addressed include Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, and Bahrain, and also address broader subjects like Doctors Without Borders or COVID-19. I have to say I was honestly ashamed by how little of the material I was familiar with when I went in, but I'm incredibly grateful Al-Saadi offered readers like me a chance to learn about the area. One of the essays even focused on how my own country (Canada) interacts with Israel and Palestine. I was actually quite impressed by the international perspective several of the essays took, tying the stories of countries in West Asia and North Africa into the stories of countries like Cuba and Italy.
Several artists contributed to the project, all from different West Asian or North African countries, offering different visuals and different perspectives on the stories Yazan Al-Saadi had to tell. Some of the artists were ones I had just recently experienced elsewhere (Guantanamo Voices: True Accounts from the World’s Most Infamous Prison) and I was grateful to spend more time with their work.
As a whole, I think this brief volume is a brilliant and essential book that offers an informative and heartfelt look into histories and modern realities that so many of us in the West simply don't know about. The focus on resistance is so essential in today's global political environment. I learned a lot reading this, and I honestly feel better prepared to learn more about a lot of what featured here. Highly recommended.
A collection of graphic journalism, each chapter is about a different aspect of recent (in the last fifteen years) history of different parts of West Asia and North Africa. These graphic essays explore the oppression faced by locals from western imperialism and corrupt local governments, often focusing on the ways that locals on the ground have fought back against that oppression and resisted the domination of forces that don't care about their lives or wellbeing in any way. Countries addressed include Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, and Bahrain, and also address broader subjects like Doctors Without Borders or COVID-19. I have to say I was honestly ashamed by how little of the material I was familiar with when I went in, but I'm incredibly grateful Al-Saadi offered readers like me a chance to learn about the area. One of the essays even focused on how my own country (Canada) interacts with Israel and Palestine. I was actually quite impressed by the international perspective several of the essays took, tying the stories of countries in West Asia and North Africa into the stories of countries like Cuba and Italy.
Several artists contributed to the project, all from different West Asian or North African countries, offering different visuals and different perspectives on the stories Yazan Al-Saadi had to tell. Some of the artists were ones I had just recently experienced elsewhere (Guantanamo Voices: True Accounts from the World’s Most Infamous Prison) and I was grateful to spend more time with their work.
As a whole, I think this brief volume is a brilliant and essential book that offers an informative and heartfelt look into histories and modern realities that so many of us in the West simply don't know about. The focus on resistance is so essential in today's global political environment. I learned a lot reading this, and I honestly feel better prepared to learn more about a lot of what featured here. Highly recommended.
February 12, 2025
featuring the art of Tracy Chahwan, Ganzeer, Ghadi Ghosn, Omar Khouri, Sirene Moukheiber, Hicham Rahma and Enas Satir.
Hoo boy, readers, what a book. If you're as unfamiliar with current events in the Middle East and North Africa as I am, then this book is likely to be a jarring experience for you, as Yazan Al-Saadi takes readers on a tour of what's been happening recently in some of the area's most politically repressed nations, moving from the better-publicized crises in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, to the ones that receive less coverage in Bahrain, Yemen and Sudan, with other stops along the way. The author himself is Syrian Canadian, and worked as both a journalist and with Medecins Sans Frontieres. There are many rightful targets of his ire who all share this in common: the desire to centralize power in themselves alone, and by doing so strip others of their rights and dignities.
As such, Mr Al-Saadi sets any number of dictators and authoritarian regimes in his sights, as well as the imperialist/settler-colonial powers of the West and Israel. This is, ofc, old hat to anyone with any awareness of the area and even half a heart, but the sheer amount of detail he puts into narrating the crimes against the people of MENA sheds light on some truly awful situations. In doing so, his aim is to raise both awareness and inspire solidarity worldwide. Tyranny and economic exploitation must be fought against by the many below: we cannot expect to be rescued by the (perishingly rare benevolent) few in power above.
Interestingly, he produces some of his freshest arguments when contrasting Fidel Castro's Cuba with Bashar Assad's Syria. The choice between dictatorship and imperialism is a false dichotomy put forward and believed by those of limited imagination, of which he himself was admittedly once. In order to build a world that is just towards all its people, power must be devolved, with the state truly representing the will of its citizenry.
If that wasn't left-wing enough for you, Mr Al-Saadi also decries paternalism, corruption and anti-immigrant attitudes, no matter who expresses them. His chapter on the exploitation of refugees was particularly moving, as was his reminder that statelessness can happen to anyone and that hard borders are nonsense. As someone still trying to grapple with the chaos that was unleashed on January 20th, this book serves as a sobering reminder that dictatorships not only ruin countries but take countless lives: all needlessly, and all to make insecure despots feel better about themselves. It can be a hard lesson to swallow, especially given how naively complicit so many of us can be in the needless torment of others.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is a wordy collection, as each illustrated chapter is preceded by an essay and footnotes. It gets better as the book goes on, but as a graphic novel aficionado, I think the little asides describing the choices made in the art would work better after each comic and not beforehand.
The art itself offers a wide range of styles, from Hicham Rahma's sarcastic cartoons to Tracy Chahwan's somber panels. Perhaps my favorite chapter, art-wise, was Omar Khouri's depiction of the tragedy surrounding the Port of Beirut explosion of 2020. The rough colored pencil art beautifully melded Mr Al-Saadi's twin stories in a visually arresting manner, taking a very recent horror and translating it almost into a chapter out of myth: doomed to be repeated again and again until humanity finally learns.
This was not an easy book to read -- I constantly had to take breaks -- but it provides both excellent insight into the area and reminds readers that it's on all of us to fight back against tyranny, corruption and the festering unkindnesses in our own hearts that seek to separate us spiritually from the rest of humanity.
Lebanon Is Burning And Other Dispatches by Yazan Al-Saadi et. al. was published December 10 2024 by Graphic Mundi and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
Hoo boy, readers, what a book. If you're as unfamiliar with current events in the Middle East and North Africa as I am, then this book is likely to be a jarring experience for you, as Yazan Al-Saadi takes readers on a tour of what's been happening recently in some of the area's most politically repressed nations, moving from the better-publicized crises in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, to the ones that receive less coverage in Bahrain, Yemen and Sudan, with other stops along the way. The author himself is Syrian Canadian, and worked as both a journalist and with Medecins Sans Frontieres. There are many rightful targets of his ire who all share this in common: the desire to centralize power in themselves alone, and by doing so strip others of their rights and dignities.
As such, Mr Al-Saadi sets any number of dictators and authoritarian regimes in his sights, as well as the imperialist/settler-colonial powers of the West and Israel. This is, ofc, old hat to anyone with any awareness of the area and even half a heart, but the sheer amount of detail he puts into narrating the crimes against the people of MENA sheds light on some truly awful situations. In doing so, his aim is to raise both awareness and inspire solidarity worldwide. Tyranny and economic exploitation must be fought against by the many below: we cannot expect to be rescued by the (perishingly rare benevolent) few in power above.
Interestingly, he produces some of his freshest arguments when contrasting Fidel Castro's Cuba with Bashar Assad's Syria. The choice between dictatorship and imperialism is a false dichotomy put forward and believed by those of limited imagination, of which he himself was admittedly once. In order to build a world that is just towards all its people, power must be devolved, with the state truly representing the will of its citizenry.
If that wasn't left-wing enough for you, Mr Al-Saadi also decries paternalism, corruption and anti-immigrant attitudes, no matter who expresses them. His chapter on the exploitation of refugees was particularly moving, as was his reminder that statelessness can happen to anyone and that hard borders are nonsense. As someone still trying to grapple with the chaos that was unleashed on January 20th, this book serves as a sobering reminder that dictatorships not only ruin countries but take countless lives: all needlessly, and all to make insecure despots feel better about themselves. It can be a hard lesson to swallow, especially given how naively complicit so many of us can be in the needless torment of others.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is a wordy collection, as each illustrated chapter is preceded by an essay and footnotes. It gets better as the book goes on, but as a graphic novel aficionado, I think the little asides describing the choices made in the art would work better after each comic and not beforehand.
The art itself offers a wide range of styles, from Hicham Rahma's sarcastic cartoons to Tracy Chahwan's somber panels. Perhaps my favorite chapter, art-wise, was Omar Khouri's depiction of the tragedy surrounding the Port of Beirut explosion of 2020. The rough colored pencil art beautifully melded Mr Al-Saadi's twin stories in a visually arresting manner, taking a very recent horror and translating it almost into a chapter out of myth: doomed to be repeated again and again until humanity finally learns.
This was not an easy book to read -- I constantly had to take breaks -- but it provides both excellent insight into the area and reminds readers that it's on all of us to fight back against tyranny, corruption and the festering unkindnesses in our own hearts that seek to separate us spiritually from the rest of humanity.
Lebanon Is Burning And Other Dispatches by Yazan Al-Saadi et. al. was published December 10 2024 by Graphic Mundi and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
March 28, 2025
This is a book about important ideas. I was eager to learn as much as I could about the region. In the end, I feel like i hadn't learned very much. It's not because I already knew a bunch about this region, but perhaps because the information is presented in a generalized way. There are many statistics: dates, names of countries, the names of fighting factions, and the names of the leaders. Basically, the author would mention in quick succession and then make a call to arms to resist and protest.
But I never felt like I got a good understanding about what is happening. Perhaps if I had more prior knowledge of the topic, I could have understood the plights of these countries and their peoples and focused more on the ideas being presented. Perhaps I would be more motivated to action if I could have immersed myself in the stories and was able to build up even more empathy and a will to action. But the stories were threadbare and mostly facts and figures. As it is, the book just left me kind of hopeless, because like the author says, humans will never stop resisting. Of course, that also means that humans will always have some tragedy to fight against.
I know the this is presented in a graphic media form, and that form lends itself to less granular detail, which is what would have made it more interesting for me), but perhaps the author could make a series of books with one extended story each and really tell the stories of what is happening in the region. That would help me became more motivated to be more active at least emotionally. Narratives have a wonderful way to activate people's intelligence and emotions. I find the narratives in these stories thread bare.
I did enjoy (as much as one can enjoy such depressing information) as I kept reading. Perhaps I was getting a better sense of what was going on, but also because it had given me some things to think about:
1) The sheer quantity of sad stories in the book made me realize what a mess the whole region is, even if one doesn't count the Isreal/Palestine conflicts.
2) Many of the conflicts were civil wars hence they were quite often factions fighting against factions.
3) Many of the oppressive leaders in the region were more concerned with lining their pockets then the welfare of their own people. Of course, these leaders were often backed by larger and stronger powers who profit from keeping the people exploited and downtrodden.
4) The author wishes to go back to before the time when the Palestinian people were removed from their lands, but I am not sure how realistic that would be. How much land did the Palestinian people actually possess at the time of the creation of Isreal? I don't know the answer to that question, but if it was the majority of the land, I don't see Isreal giving that much land back. Perhaps that land was stolen from the Palestinian people, but I don't know enough about the history of the region (That story would have made a good book on its own) but there is no way Isreal is going to forfeit the majority of their land, just like the US isn't going to give the Native American or Mexican land back that they stole. Maybe a solution is to make Isreal a secular egalitarian state in which the resources and living areas could be shared by everyone, instead of keeping the Gaza strip a ghetto. It could be a country that looks like the "free" countries of the west, in which one could go to a city zoo and see diversity of people living (somewhat) in harmony with out fighting over religion or culture. You see, the book done put me to some thinking.
It is a graphic book, so I should speak of the graphics themselves. There are various artists illustrating the writings of the main author. They are interesting and not at all staid or conventional. While I liked some more than others, they were overall very interesting and dynamic.
Worth reading and makes me want to dig in a little more and learn about how all these places became what they became.
But I never felt like I got a good understanding about what is happening. Perhaps if I had more prior knowledge of the topic, I could have understood the plights of these countries and their peoples and focused more on the ideas being presented. Perhaps I would be more motivated to action if I could have immersed myself in the stories and was able to build up even more empathy and a will to action. But the stories were threadbare and mostly facts and figures. As it is, the book just left me kind of hopeless, because like the author says, humans will never stop resisting. Of course, that also means that humans will always have some tragedy to fight against.
I know the this is presented in a graphic media form, and that form lends itself to less granular detail, which is what would have made it more interesting for me), but perhaps the author could make a series of books with one extended story each and really tell the stories of what is happening in the region. That would help me became more motivated to be more active at least emotionally. Narratives have a wonderful way to activate people's intelligence and emotions. I find the narratives in these stories thread bare.
I did enjoy (as much as one can enjoy such depressing information) as I kept reading. Perhaps I was getting a better sense of what was going on, but also because it had given me some things to think about:
1) The sheer quantity of sad stories in the book made me realize what a mess the whole region is, even if one doesn't count the Isreal/Palestine conflicts.
2) Many of the conflicts were civil wars hence they were quite often factions fighting against factions.
3) Many of the oppressive leaders in the region were more concerned with lining their pockets then the welfare of their own people. Of course, these leaders were often backed by larger and stronger powers who profit from keeping the people exploited and downtrodden.
4) The author wishes to go back to before the time when the Palestinian people were removed from their lands, but I am not sure how realistic that would be. How much land did the Palestinian people actually possess at the time of the creation of Isreal? I don't know the answer to that question, but if it was the majority of the land, I don't see Isreal giving that much land back. Perhaps that land was stolen from the Palestinian people, but I don't know enough about the history of the region (That story would have made a good book on its own) but there is no way Isreal is going to forfeit the majority of their land, just like the US isn't going to give the Native American or Mexican land back that they stole. Maybe a solution is to make Isreal a secular egalitarian state in which the resources and living areas could be shared by everyone, instead of keeping the Gaza strip a ghetto. It could be a country that looks like the "free" countries of the west, in which one could go to a city zoo and see diversity of people living (somewhat) in harmony with out fighting over religion or culture. You see, the book done put me to some thinking.
It is a graphic book, so I should speak of the graphics themselves. There are various artists illustrating the writings of the main author. They are interesting and not at all staid or conventional. While I liked some more than others, they were overall very interesting and dynamic.
Worth reading and makes me want to dig in a little more and learn about how all these places became what they became.
December 5, 2024
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: Voices from the Middle East on the fight for self-determination.
Essential reading for understanding current events through authoritative Middle East voices from the front lines.
Much of the present discourse about the pro-democracy Arab uprisings of 2011 paints a bleak picture of their defeat. But the truth is more complicated, and moments of struggle and inspiration still recur despite the overwhelming odds against the movements’ success.
This collection of short comics documents the political and social unrest in the Middle East during the 2010s in such places as Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, and Bahrain. A collaboration between writer and journalist Yazan Al-Saadi and a lineup of stellar cartoonists from the region—including:
Tracy Chahwan, Ganzeer, Ghadi Ghosn, Omar Khouri, Sirène Moukheiber, Hicham Rahma, Enas Satir
This graphic reportage serves as a witness to an era of counterrevolutionary resurgence in which entrenched powers clashed with the people’s struggle for self-determination.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Precisely what I myownself needed to "get" the reasons the world is on fire again in what we in the US call the Middle East.
It's all in the gestalt between art, ideas, and words. The entire experience illuminated my frustrated sense of "what the hell happened to set this horror into motion again?"
Cheery little bagatelle it is not. A great way to offer your older teen or twentysomething giftee a handle on why the world is ablaze with rage...again...it very much is.
The Publisher Says: Voices from the Middle East on the fight for self-determination.
Essential reading for understanding current events through authoritative Middle East voices from the front lines.
Much of the present discourse about the pro-democracy Arab uprisings of 2011 paints a bleak picture of their defeat. But the truth is more complicated, and moments of struggle and inspiration still recur despite the overwhelming odds against the movements’ success.
This collection of short comics documents the political and social unrest in the Middle East during the 2010s in such places as Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, and Bahrain. A collaboration between writer and journalist Yazan Al-Saadi and a lineup of stellar cartoonists from the region—including:
Tracy Chahwan, Ganzeer, Ghadi Ghosn, Omar Khouri, Sirène Moukheiber, Hicham Rahma, Enas Satir
This graphic reportage serves as a witness to an era of counterrevolutionary resurgence in which entrenched powers clashed with the people’s struggle for self-determination.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Precisely what I myownself needed to "get" the reasons the world is on fire again in what we in the US call the Middle East.
It's all in the gestalt between art, ideas, and words. The entire experience illuminated my frustrated sense of "what the hell happened to set this horror into motion again?"
Cheery little bagatelle it is not. A great way to offer your older teen or twentysomething giftee a handle on why the world is ablaze with rage...again...it very much is.
July 6, 2025
I thought this was a great entry point into the social/political issues in this area of the world. I especially liked the chapter about MSF and how it was essentially an imperialist organization (I was unaware) and the chapter where Al-Saadi was reflecting on how his argument with a Cuban national was misguided when years later it was turned back on him about his own country and the realities of life there. The chapter on whose lives matter more in this world (in terms of wealth and geographic power) was also insightful. The illustrations were detailed and the footnotes describing them provided an in-depth glimpse into the thought process behind each panel. I enjoyed reading this book.
March 28, 2025
Very thoughtfully written and beautifully illustrated. A really good break down of a lot of events in the Middle East that didn’t receive adequate media coverage in the US. I learned a lot and will definitely be rereading and referencing. Very cool to see how different artists illustrate these events! I want to read more political comics, this felt like a really accessible way to learn about important events that still celebrates individual artists and their experiences simultaneously. Very very good.
November 18, 2024
An absolute must have for every library. A set of vignettes based on historical events, disputes and carnage from the middle east.
Artists include Tracy Chahwan, Ghad Ghosn, Omar Khorn (Lebanon); Ganzeer & Hicham Rahma (Egypt); Enas Satir (Sudan); Sirène Moukheber (Qatar).
Each vignette is preceded by a short description of the panels and their inspiration / origin followed by some awe inspiring art depicting the agony of the peoples involved.
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
Artists include Tracy Chahwan, Ghad Ghosn, Omar Khorn (Lebanon); Ganzeer & Hicham Rahma (Egypt); Enas Satir (Sudan); Sirène Moukheber (Qatar).
Each vignette is preceded by a short description of the panels and their inspiration / origin followed by some awe inspiring art depicting the agony of the peoples involved.
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
August 5, 2025
Journalist Al-Saadi collaborates with a variety of different artists to discuss recent history in the Middle East. The book is less successful in its execution than its intention: each story opens with a prologue which contains information which is already in the comic (or ought to be), footnotes (somewhat confusedly) precede rather than follow the stories, and some of the lettering is very difficult to decipher. Nevertheless, it a worthy project, disturbing and educational.
3.5 stars.
3.5 stars.
December 20, 2025
I loved this book. I didn't want to put it down!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews