An excerpt of Libia, a graphic novel by Francesca Mannocchi and Gianluca Costantini
Libia is a graphic novel that springs from the collaboration between journalist Francesca Mannocchi and artist and activist Gianluca Costantini. The book combines in-depth investigative journalism with powerful and incisive images, delving into the complex intricacies of the Libyan conflict.
Published in Italian in October 2019 and followed a year later by a French edition, the graphic novel looks at the war in Libya from the point of view of the people whose lives have been upended by years of violence. This is perhaps one of the greatest contributions of the book: a change of scale, a narration of the war from the ground up. Libia casts aside the broad strokes of the geopolitical discourse and zooms in on people’s lived, daily experiences of war. Each chapter is centered around a person or a group of people providing a humanizing account of the struggles, pains and challenges glossed over by news reports. Continue
