Now that Riad is a teenager, he struggles with problems both universal and specific, but when his father, Abdel-Razak, returns again to the same fantastical dreams he pursued in previous books, he becomes more and more unhinged, until ultimately he crosses the line from idealism to fanaticism, leading to a dramatic breaking point. Original. - (Baker & Taylor)
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.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
Riad Sattouf is a best-selling cartoonist and filmmaker who grew up in Syria and Libya and now lives in Paris. The author of four comics series in France and a former contributor to the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, Sattouf is now a weekly columnist for l’Obs. He also directed the films The French Kissers and Jacky in the Women’s Kingdom. - (McMillan Palgrave)
Booklist Reviews
In the penultimate volume of this heartrending graphic memoir chronicling the author's harrowing childhood spent torn between cultures, 10-year-old Riad is living in Brittany with his mother and siblings while his father is teaching in Saudi Arabia. His idyll there ends when the family reunites in Syria, where his elderly grandmother is near death with pneumonia. The father's religious zeal and self-delusion have grown even stronger after a pilgrimage to Mecca, and Riad's growing attachment to France makes the harsh conditions and the cruelty of his relatives even more difficult to bear. The Syrian visit only strengthens his mother's resolve to return to France permanently, but when the father rejoins the family there to attempt a reconciliation, the distance between Riad's parents proves insurmountable, leading to an irrevocable turning point that sets the stage for the concluding installment. Four volumes into the saga, the depiction of Riad's bleak existence through Sattouf's cartoony graphics seems not incongruous but perfectly appropriate, reinforcing the fact that we're witnessing these devastating events through a child's eyes. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Covering the years 1987–92, this penultimate installment of a best-selling memoir limning a life caught between the French and Syrian cultures sees French cartoonist Sattouf reaching his teenage years. His father became increasingly religious after leaving Syria to take a job in Saudi Arabia, and his fed-up mother returned with her children to live with her mother in France. There, Sattouf endured bullies at school and judgmental relatives at home—and then his father reappeared, forcing a crisis.
Copyright 2019 Library Journal.