March 12, 2011
“Swiftly and skillfully, Joe Sacco’s new masterpiece draws the reader into the tortured world of the Gaza Strip, using his present-day return there as a documentary framing device for what obsesses him, two little-known, large-scale killings of civilians in 1956, the greatest massacre of Palestinians on Palestinian soil. Sacco’s ace is his uncanny skill at characterization—a face by Sacco is a human original, distinctly different, flawed and fiercely unique. Every page of this huge book is teeming with the sheer variety of humanity, character after character stepping forward to give testimony to the injustices and horrors of the past.”– Nick, University Book Store, Seattle