EL ÁRABE DEL FUTURO Series

Riad Sattouf continúa desgranando su aguda y desternillante autobiografía en este nuevo volumen gráfico de El árabe del futuro, una de las series más celebradas del último lustro a nivel internacional, traducida a veintidós idiomas.

A través de los ojos del niño que fue, Sattouf nos relata sus vivencias en Libia, Siria, el Líbano y Francia, al tiempo que ofrece un retablo impagable del Oriente Próximo de la época y su relación con Occidente.

En este nuevo volumen, más extenso, oscuro e íntimo que los anteriores, el autor bucea en el período comprendido entre 1987 y 1992, la época en la que se convierte en adolescente y en la que su familia sufre una grave crisis: su padre se va a trabajar a Arabia Saudí y se abraza con más fervor a la religión, mientras que su madre regresa a la Bretaña francesa con sus hijos y le resulta cada vez más difícil soportar el giro hacia el fanatismo religioso de su marido. Y, justo en ese momento, la familia al completo debe volver a Siria…

Probablemente nos encontramos ante el momento álgido de la serie, en el que Sattouf continúa entretejiendo su pequeña historia familiar con la historia de Oriente Próximo, sin dejar nunca de emplear una voz cálida, cómplice y socarrona, donde el asombro y la comedia siempre acompañan el relato.

ENGLISH EDITION

The penultimate installment in the bestselling French graphic memoir series―hailed as “exquisitely illustrated” and “irresistible”―covering the years of Riad Sattouf’s adolescence, from 1987-1992.

In the fourth volume of The Arab of the Future, little Riad has grown into a teenager. In the previous books, his childhood was complicated by the pull of his two cultures―French and Syrian―and his parents’ deteriorating relationship. Now his father, Adbel-Razak, has left to take a job in Saudi Arabia, and after making a pilgrimage to Mecca, turns increasingly towards religion. But after following him from place to place and living for years under the harsh conditions of his impoverished village, Riad’s mother Clementine has had enough. Refusing to live in a country where women have no rights, she returns with her children to live in France with her own mother… until Abdel-Razak shows up unexpectedly to drag the family on yet another journey.

As the series builds to a climax, we see Riad struggle with problems both universal (bullies at school) and specific (his mother’s sudden illness, the judgment of his religious relatives). And as Abdel-Razak returns again to the same fantastical dreams he pursued in previous books, we see him become more and more unhinged, until ultimately he crosses the line from idealism to fanaticism, leading to a dramatic breaking point.

Full of the same gripping storytelling and lush visual style for which Sattouf’s previous works have won numerous awards, The Arab of the Future 4 continues the saga of the Sattouf family and their peripatetic life in France and the Middle East.

Una novela gráfica que nos descubre, a través del testimonio personal, realidades y experiencias alejadas de la homogeneizada «cultura global», pero cuyo conocimiento es fundamental para comprender el mundo en toda su vibrante complejidad.

Este libro cuenta la verdadera historia de un colegial rubio en la Siria de Hafez el Asad.

Si en el primer volumen de El árabe del futuro Riad Sattouf contaba sus primeros años de vida entre la Libia de Gadafi y la Siria de Hafez al-Asad, en este segundo volumen nos introduce en su primer año de escuela en Siria, donde aprende a leer y a escribir en árabe, descubre y convive con su familia paterna y, a pesar de seguir en contacto con su Francia natal y de pasar una vacaciones allí con su madre, sigue haciendo todo lo posible para convertirse en un verdadero sirio y así complacer a su padre en su incansable intento por educar a «el árabe del futuro».

La vida en la granja, la dureza de la escuela en Ter Maaleh, sus visitas a las tiendas del mercado negro en Homs, los paseos largos y calurosos a la antigua ciudad de Palmira, entre muchas otras anécdotas, son el hilo conductor de este segundo volumen que nos muestra la vida cotidiana de un pequeño niño rubio bajo la dictadura de Hafez al-Asad.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The highly anticipated continuation of Riad Sattouf’s internationally acclaimed, #1 French bestseller, which was hailed by The New York Times as “a disquieting yet essential read”.

In The Arab of the Future: Volume 1, cartoonist Riad Sattouf tells of the first years of his childhood as his family shuttles back and forth between France and the Middle East. In Libya and Syria, young Riad is exposed to the dismal reality of a life where food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and his cousins, virulently anti-Semitic and convinced he is Jewish because of his blond hair, lurk around every corner waiting to beat him up.

In Volume 2, Riad, now settled in his father’s hometown of Homs, gets to go to school, where he dedicates himself to becoming a true Syrian in the country of the dictator Hafez Al-Assad. Told simply yet with devastating effect, Riad’s story takes in the sweep of politics, religion, and poverty, but is steered by acutely observed small moments: the daily sadism of his schoolteacher, the lure of the black market, with its menu of shame and subsistence, and the obsequiousness of his father in the company of those close to the regime. As his family strains to fit in, one chilling, barbaric act drives the Sattoufs to make the most dramatic of changes.

Darkly funny and piercingly direct, The Arab of the Future, Volume 2 once again reveals the inner workings of a tormented country and a tormented family, delivered through Riad Sattouf’s dazzlingly original talent.