The Perfume of Iraq

Original title: Le parfum d’Irak

Author: Alani, Feurat

Publication Date:

October 2018

Pages:

178

Original language and publisher

French | Nova-Arte

Genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

The Perfume of Iraq

Original title: Le parfum d’Irak

Author: Alani, Feurat

  • 2 Seas represents: Dutch, Nordic and North American rights.
  • Rights sold: Arabic (Nool Books)
  • Selected for the Prix Albert Londres 2019
  • Web series adaptation by Arte (20 animated shorts directed by Leonard Cohen)

GRAPHIC NON-FICTION

This one of a kind graphic novel is a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of a real, human, devastating Iraq through 1000 tweets and Léonard Cohen’s poignant illustrations.

Feurat Alani is a French-Iraqi journalist. During the summer of 2016, dissuaded and disappointed by how Iraq is described in the media, he posts 1000 tweets, in which he tells the world about his Iraq.

Feurat grew up in Paris, but spent many childhood summers in an Iraq that he watched fall apart under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. As an adult, he reports from an Iraq under American occupation, and discovers the sounds and silences of war. The Perfume of Iraq is an intimate and discerning look on a battered country from first a child’s, then a young man’s perspective.

Together with Léonard Cohen’s superb illustrations, the result is a poetic and powerful story of a different Iraq.

The son of an Iraqi political refugee living in Paris, Feurat Alani became a journalist and was the correspondent in Baghdad between 2003 and 2008 for several newspapers. He regularly writes for Le Monde Diplomatique, Orient XXI and Géo.