The Once and Future Riot: From the prizewinning author of Palestine

by Joe Sacco

From the ground-breaking graphics journalist and author of Palestine, a revelatory investigation of the deadly sectarian riots in 2013 Uttar Pradesh, India, and their urgent global significance today

Compared to other episodes of lethal Indian communal violence, the clashes in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the Muzaffarnagar Riot, were a relatively small-scale affair. It had happened before and will probably happen Hindus and Muslims, armed with guns and swords, riled up by vitriolic rhetoric and a tangle of accusations, turn on one another. The truth fragments along religious lines, both in the lead-up to the rampage and in its bloody aftermath.

Joe Sacco immerses himself in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to government officials, political leaders, village chiefs, and especially the victims, who were mostly landless peasants, in a quest to understand this riot as an archetype of political violence. In the process, he probes the role of savagery in a democracy; the power of crowds, rather than leaders, to influence the course of events; the collision of competing narratives; and the accounts that perpetrators construct to explain away their participation in bloodshed.

Sacco has chronicled the urgent histories that define the world around us, from the Great War to Gaza. Here, the award winning cartoonist turns his masterful visual reportage to a story that is specific to India but with implications and resonance for us all.

*

PRAISE FOR JOE

'One of the masters of his craft' New Statesman

'A pioneer of the genre' TLS

'Formidably talented.' Independent

'The hands-down boss of his particular corner of contemporary literature' Dazed & Confused

'Sacco's brilliant, excruciating books of war reportage are potent territory... He shows how much that is crucial to our lives a book can hold' New York Times Book Review

Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics, History, Politics, India, Bande Dessinée

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2025

About the author

Joe Sacco was born in Malta on October 2, 1960. At the age of one, he moved with his family to Australia, where he spent his childhood until 1972, when they moved to Los Angeles. He began his journalism career working on the Sunset High School newspaper in Beaverton, Oregon. While journalism was his primary focus, this was also the period of time in which he developed his penchant for humor and satire. He graduated from Sunset High in 1978.

Sacco earned his B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1981 in three years. He was greatly frustrated with the journalist work that he found at the time, later saying, "[I couldn't find] a job writing very hard-hitting, interesting pieces that would really make some sort of difference." After being briefly employed by the journal of the National Notary Association, a job which he found "exceedingly, exceedingly boring," and several factories, he returned to Malta, his journalist hopes forgotten. "...I sort of decided to forget it and just go the other route, which was basically take my hobby, which has been cartooning, and see if I could make a living out of that," he later told the BBC.

He began working for a local publisher writing guidebooks. Returning to his fondness for comics, he wrote a Maltese romance comic named Imħabba Vera ("True Love"), one of the first art-comics in the Maltese language. "Because Malta has no history of comics, comics weren't considered something for kids," he told Village Voice. "In one case, for example, the girl got pregnant and she went to Holland for an abortion. Malta is a Catholic country where not even divorce is allowed. It was unusual, but it's not like anyone raised a stink about it, because they had no way of judging whether this was appropriate material for comics or not."

Eventually returning to the United States, by 1985 Sacco had founded a satirical, alternative comics magazine called Portland Permanent Press in Portland, Oregon. When the magazine folded fifteen months later, he took a job at The Comics Journal as the staff news writer. This job provided the opportunity for him to create another satire: the comic Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy, a name he took from an overly-complicated children's toy in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

But Sacco was more interested in travelling. In 1988, he left the U.S. again to travel across Europe, a trip which he chronicled in his autobiographical comic Yahoo. The trip lead him towards the ongoing Gulf War (his obsession with which he talks about in Yahoo #2), and in 1991 he found himself nearby to research the work he would eventually publish as Palestine.

The Gulf War segment of Yahoo drew Sacco into a study of Middle Eastern politics, and he traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories to research his first long work. Palestine was a collection of short and long pieces, some depicting Sacco's travels and encounters with Palestinians (and several Israelis), and some dramatizing the stories he was told. It was serialized as a comic book from 1993 to 2001 and then published in several collections, the first of which won an American Book Award in 1996.

Sacco next travelled to Sarajevo and Goražde near the end of the Bosnian War, and produced a series of reports in the same style as Palestine: the comics Safe Area Goražde, The Fixer, and the stories collected in War's End; the financing for which was aided by his winning of the Guggenheim Fellowship in April 2001. Safe Area Goražde won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 2001.

He has also contributed short pieces of graphic reportage to a variety of magazines, on subjects ranging from war crimes to blues, and is a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Sacco currently lives in Portland.

Reviews

[Vartika · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Once and Future Riot, awardwinning cartoonist and investigative journalist Joe Sacco heads to Uttar Pradesh in northern India to explore the ways in which political violence informs memory, mechanics and myth-making in the 'World's Largest Democracy'.

Dear Reader, do you believe in The People? Do you applaud the impulse that brings The People together to express a grievance or take a stand?

Travelling with a local journalist named Piyush Kumar, Sacco speaks to politicians, civil servants, local chiefs and displaced peoples across Muzaffarnagar's Muslim and Hindu communities to understand how the 2013 communal riots came to pass. Compared to the immense bloodshed of the partition or the various instances of sectarian violence – from the demolition of the Babri mosque (1992) to the riots in Gujarat (2002) and Delhi (2020) – that have quite literally come to define modern Indian history, the Muzaffarnagar riots (which killed 62, injured 730, and displaced over 50,000 people) may seem like a small affair. Yet, as Sacco shows, it was in fact an archetype of the savage, incendiary violence that perpetually looms over the country and has time and again taken hold of it.

And what if The People are angry? What if The People aren't YOUR people, and what if their anger appears to be directed at YOU?

Then when does their assembly begin to look like an unruly crowd, and when does an unruly crowd begin to seem like an enraged mob?

This is a complex story, and to Sacco's credit, the book tells it incredibly well. Following the various facets of a divide built on exploitation of differences in caste, class, sex, and of course religion, he places Muzaffarnagar amidst the long history of India's march towards the Right.

The art style here is crucial to the book's investigation of how quickly skirmishes turn into forest fires and neighbours into ferocious lynch mobs: focusing on the currency of India's massive population and its cultural of local self-governance, Sacco's illustrations are attentive to facial expressions when looking at individual stories and testimonies while also visually augmenting the impact of 'crowds' to create a sense of scale when depicting larger gatherings. The visuals and investigative narrative build on each other to show how such clashes, replete with misinformation, half-truths, competing narratives and outright lies (the exasperating workings of which lend to Sacco's meta-narrative as an outsider peeking in) are embedded in every day corruption and discrimination, and to the sole benefit of political parties, who profit from increasing hostilities and clear-cut voter factions.

The larger 'point' of this book may not, at first, seem obvious to readers unfamiliar with South Asian politics, for it isn't quite so clear who the real instigators in Muzaffarnagar might have been. However, for those with an eye for nuance, The Once and Future Riot outlines how such obfuscation of fact is, in fact, strategically engineered for the continuance of politics and for the Hindu nationalists who wield power today, and who will undoubtedly want to 'prove' themselves again come the next election cycle. In fact, the book makes a powerful observation about democracy itself: how it serves the powerful rather than the people, and how they forment violence and civil unrest to come to power, and then rely on it to maintain it.

As with Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza and Safe Area Goražde, Sacco's investigative reportage here highlights systemic failures and attempts to speak truth to power, one panel at a time. While the specifics of this case are particular to India, the dynamics it illuminates pervade all multi-ethnic, multi-racial societies – this book has relevance for all civilian readers, no matter where in the world you are.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Sacco details a decade-old trip to India to investigate some sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims and a full-scale riot that had occurred in the Uttar Pradesh region in 2013.

Honestly, the events feel a bit stale given everything that has occurred in the intervening years of Narendra Modi's controversial rule, but Sacco still managed to stir my interest through his portrait of the journalistic nightmare of trying to untangle competing unreliable narrators in a system rife with corruption where justice twists and turns on a whim depending on the most recent bribe and/or the leveraging of favors and influence at different levels of government.

Cynical and depressing.


(Best of 2025 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto one or more of these lists:

• Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2025
• Publishers Weekly 2025 Graphic Novel Critics Poll
• NPR's Books We Love 2025: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels

This book made the WaPo and PW lists.)

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the illustrations in this book but found the storytelling a little hard to follow. I really liked getting the history and political context but didn't think it came across often or clearly enough. I also found the interviews that were contradictory hard to decipher. So while I liked and appreciated much of the book it didn't grip me and was a bit of slower reader (especially considering it is 136 pages and a graphic book).

[Alberto Martín de Hijas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sacco aporta una perspectiva interesante sobre como crece el fanatismo (y sobre como se esparce el hindutva hasta convertirse en una especie de sharia hindú) pero el libro se me hace bola. La narrativa avanza y retrocede de forma demasiado errática y cuesta mucho hacerse una idea de la situación (Cosa que no sucedía en anteriores libros del autor)

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Sacco heads to the Subcontinent to untangle the complex history of Hindu-Muslim relations in the region. Choosing to focus on Uttar Pradesh, where the Muzaffarnagar riots killed 60+ people and displaced tens of thousands of Muslims, the state of UP continues to be a hotbed for religious tensions. Ultimately, a microcosm for the problem in the region as a whole, Sacco attempts to corral the lengthy history of unrest in the country. In The Once and Future Riot, we follow Sacco who works alongside a local journalist, Piyush Kumar, to do some ground level interviews of local Jats, Hindus and Muslims. An interesting meta-narrative evolves here where the levels of misinformation spread across different communities result in Sacco's exasperation towards the half-truths and even lies that are peddled. It does also make the story a little challenging for readers less versed in the regional politics of northern India, but in a way, the level of confusion is a necessary hurdle to cross when dealing with the intricate situation of modern India.

An exploration of the events leading up to the 2013 riots is presented here, some of which ties into the history of Partition and the deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat, along with untangling the ugly history of Hindutva and related nationalist movements. The ensuing understanding is that the back and forth clashes between communities is simply the product of politicians benefiting from inflamed hostilities, all of whom do their part to ensure peoples remain divided. It's a challenging book to get through due to the sheer number of groups and factions involved, but that is really by design here. Sacco even mulls the merits of democracy further here (as he brought up in his recent short comic, War on Gaza) whereby the idea that democratically elected politicians can simply rely on violence and civil unrest as tools to maintain power.

[Gideon]

Heel aangrijpend boek over hoe religieuze en etnische concficten maar door blijven etteren in India. De vertaling laat helaas wel af en toe te wensen over.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent bit of journalism from Joe Sacco. This time reporting on the sectarian violence between Muslims and Hindus in Utter Pradesh in India.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah religion if there’s conflict to be had, then its leaders or most ardent obsessives will mercilessly hunt it down until they find it and then they will bask in it. Add politics to this and you have one incredibly explosive mix.

As ever Sacco’s drawing is gorgeous and it brings the full weight of terror and violence to life with the depth, poignancy and accuracy of his art. Sacco proves to be a sensitive and willing witness. He seems to go to great lengths and make every effort to gather as many accounts from both sides, in order to gain a reasonably balanced insight and provide us with an accurate approximation of these events. Easier said than done.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dear Reader, do you believe in The People? Do you applaud the impulse that brings The People together to express a grievance or take a stand?

And what if The People are angry? What if The People aren’t YOUR people, and what if their anger appears to be directed at YOU?

Then when does their assembly begin to look like an unruly crowd, and when does an unruly crowd begin to seem like an enraged mob?"

[Carol Tilley · Rating 5 out of 5]

relevant to our current political and media moment

[Jifu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Sacco's often witty-to-the-point-of-biting writing never fails to deeply inform, and his art never fails to make me feel like I am transported away to wherever he has traveled. And in his latest work, a story of mixed truth and multilayered tensions in Uttar Pradesh, Sacco once again proves himself to be the gold standard for when journalism and the graphic novel style meet.

[Dr. Devine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complex look at a horrific incident and the fallout.

He tries his hardest to separate fact from fiction, but in doing so he shows how entrenched people are and how far they are willing to go to perpetuate a narrative.

And great art as always.

[Daivat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another classic from Joe Sacco - although much shorter in length, and not as laden with biting wit, he does wear his journalistic hat to dissect all the various testimonies and witnesses that lived the UP riots. He realises quickly that the search for the one true account is futile and instead merely lays bare how the poor and casteless keep suffering

[Victor Martínez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dentro de la devoción que siento hacia Joe Sacco, esta no ha sido su obra que más me ha tocado (lo cierto es que Un Tributo a la Tierra está de seguro entre las lecturas a las que más aprecio tengo). Sin embargo, una vez más, realiza un trabajo pormenorizado que ayuda a contextualizar y comprender un poco mejor un nuevo (viejo) conflicto en un territorio completamente ajeno para mí.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reportaje periodístico sobre los disturbios entra las comunidades musulmana e hindú en una región de la India que, además en desplegar los motivos detrás del enfrentamiento (culturales pero, sobre todo, de clase), indaga en lo complicado que es arrojar luz sobre lo allí vivido. En ese sentido, las idas y venidas de Sacco y su intérprete por los diferentes testimonios para identificar lo sucedido entre lo recordado y lo inventado es fundamental lo que, también, dificulta a ratos seguir el reportaje. El relato de las diferentes entrevistas con sus interlocutores se ofrece embarullado, lo que lo diferencia de otras obras suyas más centradas en desbrozar los relatos y asentarlos en una narración más convencional. En ese sentido, destaca la veracidad que transmite, por encima de esa confusión derivada de las elecciones tomadas por Sacco como contador de historias.

[Wciągam Książki Nosem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Źle się dzieje w państwie indyjskim", chciałoby się rzec po przeczytaniu tego najnowszego komiksu reporterskiego mistrza gatunku Joe Sacco. Sacco tym razem na warsztat wziął serię brutalnych starć między muzułmanami a hindusami, które wybuchły w trzech dystryktach stanu Uttar Pradeś w 2013 roku. Jak zwykle przeprowadził drobiazgowe śledztwo, jeździł po miejscach zdarzeń, rozmawiał z ludźmi z obu stron konfliktu, drążył i poddawał w wątpliwość, kiedy nie wszystko mu się zgrywało, szukał naocznych świadków. I choć te zamieszki nie były pierwszymi w historii trudnych relacji hindusko-muzułmańskich, ani najbardziej krwawymi (zginęło kilkadziesiąt osób, dziesiątki tysięcy musiało uciekać), to jak sam przyznaje, te najbardziej nim wstrząsnęły. Dotyczyły małych społeczności, które żyły ze sobą od lat. Głównie hinduskiej kasty Dżatów i ich muzułmańskich pracowników rolnych. Ci pierwsi posiadali władzę, wpływy i ziemię, ci drudzy, najczęściej najbiedniejsi chłopi pozbawieni ziemi, wykonywali dla nich prace na roli za niskie stawki. A więc zarzewie konfliktu miało kilka ognisk, które gdzieś tam tliły się powoli i powiększały miarowo na przestrzeni wielu lat (autor prześledza źródła tych wzajemnych hindusko-muzułmańskich animozji, przywołując skomplikowaną sytuację po powstaniu państwa indyjskiego w 1947 roku, a także następnie inne kluczowe wydarzenia). Różnice religijne i kulturowe, ale także opozycja biedni-bogaci, uprzywilejowani-pozbawieni przywilejów. Dodatkowo na obraz tych stosunków wpływała lokalna polityka, podsycając i tak już powoli narastające napięcie.

Rekonstruując krok po kroku przyczyny, jak i przebieg tego konfliktu, Sacco pozwala nam stawiać bardziej filozoficzne i uniwersalne pytania. O samą naturę i dynamikę takiego konfliktu, kwestie odpowiedzialności rządzących, lokalnych przywódców a emocje tłumu (zauważa, że tego typu wydarzenia są cyniczne wykorzystywane przez polityków, którzy manipulując nastrojami społecznymi, chcą ugrać coś dla siebie; nieprzypadkowo do walk i pogromów doszło na kilka miesięcy przed wyborami). Interesuje go: "Kiedy zgromadzenie zaczyna przypominać niesforny tłum, a niesforny tłum - wściekły motłoch?", jakby chciał uchwycić moment eskalacji i zaślepienia prowadzącego do popełniania rozlicznych zbrodni i dzięki temu go zrozumieć. "Psychika" tłumu jest tu jakby osobnym zbiorowym bohaterem. Pokazuje również mechanizm wypierania prawdy i fałszowania zbiorowej pamięci, dopasowywania do dominującej narracji. I tu mocne są te "milczące" sceny, gdy Sacco pokazuje lokalnych liderów, zarówno muzułmańskich, jak i hinduskich, wmawiającym mu kłamstwa, a w tle widzimy kamienne twarze uczestników wydarzeń. Bohaterką tego komiksu jest również demokracja. I ta indyjska ulegająca przyspieszonej erozji, i ta rozumiana jako uniwersalna zasada, która miała być tarczą chroniącą ludzką różnorodność, ale jak widać obserwując sytuację polityczną w dzisiejszym świecie chwieje się i pęka.

Czytając ten komiks przed oczami stają sceny z Gazy, Srebrenicy, Rwandy, Jedwabnego czy Wołynia... "Zamieszki przeszłe i przyszłe", nieważne czy mowa o Indiach z 2013 roku, Palestynie z 2025, jedno jest pewne: TBC... Nie jest to może mój ulubiony Sacco, komiks jest trudny, wymaga dużego skupienia i kilkukrotnego czytania niektórych scen, żeby sobie wszystko uporządkować, ale to nadal... Sacco. On zawsze trzyma wysoki poziom. Tak jest i tym razem.

Gdy czytałam "Zamieszki przeszłe i przyszłe", przypomniał mi się wywiad z pisarką Arundhati Roy sprzed kilku lat, która mogłaby być matką chrzestną tego komiksu. "Indie to kontynent, nie kraj. Kontynent, który szuka sposobu na przeżycie. To ponad 1,3 miliarda ludzi, którzy mówią w kilkuset językach. To kilka tysięcy kast i kilkanaście wyznań. Za każdym razem, kiedy ograniczamy swoją wyobraźnię do państwa narodowego, zadajemy przemoc tej ziemi". Niestety nacjonalizm wygrywa obecnie w tym kraju. Nacjonalizm, który wyklucza wszystkich poza hindusami. I który również jest też demonicznym, pociągającym za sznurki bohaterem tego komiksu.

Dziękuję za egzemplarz do recenzji, który otrzymałam w ramach współpracy barterowej od wydawnictwa Timof Comics.

[David Karlsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Första gången jag på riktigt förstod konflikten i det forna Jugoslavien och mer specifikt Bosnien var genom Joe Saccos journalistiska mästerverk ”Safe Area Goražde”. Berättelsen om hur forna grannar nästan över en natt kunde bli bittra fiender och döda varandra baserat på religion och etnicitet var fruktansvärt att läsa om, och något som annan media vid den tiden inte hade lyckats förklara lika tydligt för mig.

I Saccos nya bok är temat liknande, men i en annan del av världen. Den här gången reser han till Uttar Pradesh i norra Indien för att gräva i konflikten mellan hinduer och muslimer, mer specifikt ett enskilt upplopp som ägde rum 2013 och som blir en slags fallstudie som belyser större frågor och skeenden.

I vanlig ordning tecknar Sacco med fantastisk detaljrikedom i svartvitt, men hans reportage är på intet sätt svartvitt. Han låter alla sidor komma till tals, pekar på de uppenbara lögner som flera kommer med men är annars försiktig med att dra slutsatser som inte kan beläggas.

Han visar också med all tydlighet att det förvisso finns en religiös aspekt här men att det även går att anlägga ett klassperspektiv liksom att peka på hur de styrande många gånger utnyttjar och underblåser den här typen av konflikter för sina egna intressen.

Jag har älskat Saccos serier i över tjugo år och min beundran för honom blev bara större när han häromåret besökte Littfest och jag fick möjligheten att prata med honom. Han är ett lysande exempel på hur journalistik kan och bör bedrivas, och även på hur seriemediet i många fall kan göra reportage både starkare och tydligare.

Jag kan inte rekommendera hans böcker nog mycket, oavsett om de handlar om Bosnien, Palestina, ursprungsbefolkning i Kanada eller norra Indien. Det är bara att välja den största kunskapsluckan man känner att man har och låta sig upplysas.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Sacco back on the beat! Similar to Palestine and Bosnia, Sacco digs deep into a non-Western culture and their issues. In this case, the pressing concerns are related to Hindu/Muslim and caste animosity in rural India.

Sacco does a wonderful job of immersing you in the setting. That said, the immersion all happens at a full sprint. The book opens with Sacco's taxi driver racing into oncoming traffic, which definitely sets the tone. There's not a race against time element here, but it sure feels like it (race against return plane tickets?).

Much of the book is Sacco and his local journalist companion interviewing the many parties involved in a large-scale riot that left many dead. Hindus blame Muslims, Muslims blame Hindus, each side has a different story, and ultimately, they all need each other for the economy to function. It's a lot to take in (particularly at breakneck speed) and the few pages of pulled-back scene-setting aren't really enough to explain the lengthy history of religious/caste conflict.

Still, it's deeply absorbing in a way that only Joe Sacco can provide. Moreso than other books, Sacco seems to be presenting the historiography version of events, a study of how people recall and explain what happened. You get both the thrilling you-are-there moments as well as Sacco contemplating how each side twists affairs to its own benefit. The Once and Future Riot is classic Sacco in that it's a book you come out of feeling smarter - and eager to read more.

[Bharat Chugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking doesn't quite cover it.

This work holds up a stark mirror to our descent into the cruelty and madness of communalism - set against the backdrop of the Muzaffarnagar riots. What makes this comic so devastating is not just the violence, but the anatomy of it: how cynical politics, economics, and the naked hunger for power conspire to turn perfectly ordinary people into instruments of hate.

It is essential reading for anyone trying to understand what is happening around us, and what it foreshadows for that beautiful, fragile, stubbornly plural and inclusive idea we once called the Idea of India.

Above all, it is a reminder - an urgent and an uncomfortable one - that our shared humanity is not a given and is fragile and always dreadfully close to descent into madness and robotism of evil. Our humanity can’t be taken for granted and must be chosen. Actively. Every day. Against every temptation to reduce the other to a label, a slur, a threat, or, simply, an other.

Gopaldas Neeraj said it with the lyrical beauty that only the greatest poets can manage:
"Ab to mazhab koi aisa bhi chalaya jaye, Jis mein insaan ko insaan banaya jaye…"
(Let there now be a faith, some faith, that teaches a human being to be human again.)

The faith in humanity and compassion must be restored, and the tag of ‘human being', it turns out, must be earned and one that we’ve - unfortunately - not always done well to deserve.

[Anal Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Sacco continues to prove why he is arguably the best non-fiction graphic novelist working today. As a brilliant investigative & empathetic journalist committed to uncovering the truth, Sacco immerses the reader through his signature vivid visual depiction of events. This account follows his 2014 travels to Muzaffarnagar, where he unravels the communal riots that devastated the region a year prior. The narrative is impressively comprehensive, covering perspectives from all corners—including village chiefs, families of both victims and the accused, government officials, local journalists, and hardline religious fanatics. Most striking is his documentation of the complicity of the political establishment in escalating the violence—how the Samajwadi Party’s appeasement of Muslims and the BJP’s fanning of Hindu mobs created a lethal environment. Perhaps the most tragic telling point Sacco makes is how women always become the battleground in such conflicts, their bodies and lives weaponized by both sides.

The book’s final takeaway is a sobering reflection on how communal tensions, manufactured for political gains in recent decades, have deeply dented India's social fabric. Sacco suggests this damage may be hard to sew back in the future, leaving the reader with a sense of grim resonance.

[Heidi Burkhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacco is an outstanding journalist. His research is fascinating. What he uncovers is hard to read about, but a real incident India in 2013 - a conflict between Muslems and a faction of Hindu’s, the Jats. The brutal antagonism and acts seem to be smoldering between these groups, but tragically will most likely burst into flames again.

Sacco has a unique ability to bring his stories to life through his visuals.

A difficult read due to the heartbreaking situation, but well worth the effort.

[Hari Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really shows how impossible it is to get the truth out of a bunch of Indians when talking about hindu-muslim relations. Saying that - I felt there was more to the story that could have been told (e.g. how the BJP, modi and their predecessors are responsible for the violence)

[Pau · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Las mujeres son el campo de batalla que pisotean los antagonistas de clase y religión”.

“Un buen disturbio necesita algo por lo que poner la mano en el fuego, un escándalo en un momento y un lugar determinados que sirva como faro moral en el camino de no retorno”.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love Sacco’s work. This one was a little confusing to a reader not already familiar with the players.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous drawings of an investigation into a horrific incident whose cinders still burn.

[Laurence Lamonde-Mercier · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love joe sacco but that wasn’t my favourite. the illustrations were great as always but the story was hard to follow

[Maider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mayoritariamente por el dibujo más que por la historia.

[Reza Shirazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly in-depth and nuanced reporting on Hindu Muslim sectarianism in India. In it you will see the result of right wing nationalism and how it can tear communities apart. I have experienced sectarian riots in Mumbai and it was terrifying. But I was fortunate to be more privileged and thus safe from the worst.
This book reminded me of the relentless hate a mob can work itself into and the abject fear for its victims.
Joe Sacco is a master of visual journalism and this book is a visceral view of the worst of humanity.

[Mat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es mi primera experiencia con este formato. Me ha parecido muy interesante. Con su confusión en algunos tramos, que integro como parte necesaria en la trama. Me animaré a más de Joe Sacco.

[Orbikong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sacco almost never disappoints