Journalist Feurat Alani chronicles his life with THE FLAVORS OF IRAQ graphic novel

Earlier this year, Penn State University’s Graphic Mundi imprint announced its spring 2024 graphic novel slate which included The Flavors of Iraq, a story with a unique execution as a way to tell its story. Written by Feurat Alani and illustrated by Léonard Cohen, It was originally published in 2018, and went on to win the Prix Albert Londres award and even having an animated adaptation by Miyu Productions.

It’s is a story told through the eyes of the author, Feurat Alani, a French journalist of Iraqi origin, detailing his life from the deterioration of Iraq under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, to the American occupation during the war in Iraq. Unlike most graphic novels which are told through just illustrations and dialogue bubbles, The Flavors of Iraq tells the story through tweets, chronicling the events of the day within the small character limit many X/Twitter users are familiar with. In addition to this, there are pages where it is just Léonard Cohen‘s spectacular illustrations created without conventional use of line art, with simple shapes and colors that pop, all the while having good color value making it easy to read the image at a quick glance.

The Beat is honored to get an exclusive preview with a chapter from the graphic novel published by Graphic Mundi. Below is the exclusive preview for you readers to enjoy!