Le parfum d'Irak

by Feurat Alani

PRIX ALBERT LONDRES 2019
Un récit au cœur de l’enfance et de l’intimité de Feurat Alani, grand reporter français d’origine irakienne. Roman graphique poétique et original, Le parfum d’Irak est constitué des 1000 tweets de Feurat Alani. Il nous livre avec émotion ses souvenirs d’enfance, depuis sa découverte de l’Irak à l’âge de 9 ans jusqu’à sa décision de devenir journaliste pour couvrir la guerre sur place. Un témoignage puissant illustré par les magnifiques dessins de Léonard Cohen.


 

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, War, Graphic Novels, Middle East, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Elettra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Témoignage poignant de l'Irak d'hier, avant les conflits, et celui d'aujourd'hui, en grande partie détruit, à la population divisée, déchirée par les conflits ethniques, générationnels, sociaux.
A lire et relire!

[Dina Rahajaharison · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Mon Irak est avant tout un ensemble d'odeurs. Le sable, la pastèque, le masgouf, le thé à la cardamome, le pain losange."

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce livre ne laisse vraiment pas indifférent.
J'ai du lire deux fois le début afin de m'imprégnée de cette histoire, j'avais besoin de comprendre comment c'est arrivé.
Je conseil cette lecture à tout le monde, c'est un très bon travail et les illustrations tout au long de l'ouvrage sont vraiment très percutantes et très jolies.
Il m'a donné envie de découvrir le travail de cet auteur.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite young and just beginning my consciousness of the world when the incomprehensible Iraq war began. This book told in minimalist illustrations is told through hundreds of tweets and gives a personal and journalistic account of a lifelong connection and accounting of what happened in Iraq. Hearing things so personally and at the ground level brought whole new meaning to this event and gave me a greater understanding of this long war and its ongoing consequences.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, based on a series of tweets from the author detailing his experience as a French-Iraqi (originally published in French, now translated into English). He spent a lot of time in Iraq as a child, and once the invasion of Iraq took place, he went back to report on it for the French media, despite his remaining family slowly leaving the country. This gives us a devastating insight into Iraq during the war, and how horrific the invasion was.

A key takeaway of this for me was the idea of “when the nation is strong, the tribe is weak, and when the nation is weak, the tribe is strong.” This really gave me a lot to think about as I continue to wrestle with the idea of nation states and ethnicity. I didn’t agree with him on everything, mainly his views on Kurdistan (his one visit there in the book was very entitled and dismissive of the Kurdish struggle).

Despite that though, I highly recommend this one. It’s out in May in English and it will stick in my head for a long, long time.

[Alfie Numeric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written memoir first published on TWITTER. The author told his story through a series of 1000 tweets, talking his first view account on what his family had to go through during the 1989 embargo of Iraq, the start of the war, and what life was like post-war. Heartbreaking, especially since it parallels to what is going on currently. Illustrator accompanied the words with beautiful minimalistic drawings.

This is a must-have for personal libraries.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure how to categorize this since-a bit like Lamia Ziade's books-it gets placed on the graphic novels section yet isn't sequential art but straight prose writing with illustrations.
Enjoyed it immensely tho and it's available in English.

[Michael Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to see another perspective on America's Wars in the Middle East. Interesting concept formatting the script as tweets. The minimalist art is great and does not take up too much of the book.

[Chad Alexander Guarino da Verona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting.

[Raven Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting format and story. The other side is told in a love letter of tweets to the country of the authors family and culture, but seen through his Western/French eyes.

[Oriane · Rating 4 out of 5]

À travers des éclats de mémoire, Feurat Alani nous fait sentir l’Irak de l’intérieur. On y respire tour à tour la glace à l’abricot et le thé à la cardamome, l’amour et l’exil, la tendresse et la colère.

[Michael Daines · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5)

“The Flavors of Iraq” is a memoir collecting a thousand tweets by the author, who was a journalist in Iraq as the U.S. destroyed the country. Born in France to Iraqi parents, Feurat would spend his summers in Baghdad and Fallujah with extended family. He grew up seeing the aftermath of the 1990s invasion and witnessing the degradations as a result of U.S. sanctions against the people of Iraq. In college for journalism when the U.S. invaded again in 2003, he dedicates the next several years of his life to reporting on the conditions there.

There are excellent graphics, but it’s barely a graphic novel. I recommend it if you can handle the material.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un vrai régal poétique de synesthésie pour ceux qui savent apprécier 🥰😍