{"product_id":"the-once-and-future-riot-by-joe-sacco","title":"The Once and Future Riot by Joe Sacco","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed a Best Graphic Novel of 2025 by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed a Best Book of 2025 by \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Sacco's careful autopsy of a lethal 2013 riot in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is one of the most compelling works of narrative journalism -- in any form -- I've read this year. The cartoonist assembles a record of an event in which only the liars agree on what happened. In the process, he asks a terrifying question: What is the difference between democracy and mob rule? And where does that difference begin?\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eSam Thielman\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Named a Best Graphic Novel of 2025\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Brilliant . . . A Masterclass in Visual Reportage . . . In an era when long-form journalism is under pressure, and political analysis filleted to morsels, Sacco's work is a lifeline.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eAdam Rutherford\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"An astonishing success: as powerful and unvarnished a statement of journalistic truth and as thoughtful a meditation on political violence as comics has yet produced.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--The Comics Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\" \u003ci\u003eThe Once and Future \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eR\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eiot\u003c\/i\u003e is a new sort of book for Sacco, more philosophical than humanistic, its eye trained on larger social and political structures. Here, he's concerned less with the aftereffects of political violence and more with the future it might engender.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Robert Rubsam, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Meticulous and beautifully crafted . . . Paying homage to the importance of seeking truth, however elusive, this timely work is as powerful as it is artful.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Publishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(Starred Review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Sacco delivers a searing account of religious conflict. . . . Graphic in all senses, this tale of sectarian hatreds . . . is a sobering warning to the world.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Kirkus \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eReviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Sacco does not sensationalize the violence, letting you infer . . . the magnitude of destruction. . . . His linework is assured, with every sword, country-made firearm, garment, and vehicle reproduced in his signature style. The faces tell stories themselves, from dispirited Muslims in displacement camps to ineffectual Hindu civic leaders attempting to calm an incendiary gathering.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eThe Slings \u0026amp; Arrows Graphic Novel Guide\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for Joe Sacco\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"There is virtually no precedent for what he does. . . . Sacco is legitimately unique.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eDavid Hajdu, \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Joe Sacco's brilliant, excruciating books of war reportage are potent territory. . . . He shows how much that is crucial to our lives a book can hold.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eMargo Jefferson, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"In just a few years, Sacco has created a body of work that includes some of the most important and relevant graphic novels of our time.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \"our greatest living comics journalist\" (\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e), a revelatory investigation of deadly sectarian riots in Uttar Pradesh, India, that explores the mechanics, dynamics, mythologies, uses, and abuses of political violence everywhere \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCompared to other episodes of lethal Indian communal violence, the clashes in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the Muzaffarnagar Riot, were a relatively small-scale affair--some scores of people were killed and several tens of thousands displaced. It had happened before and will probably happen again: Hindus and Muslims, armed with guns and swords, riled up by vitriolic rhetoric and a tangle of accusations, turn on one another. The truth fragments along religious lines, both in the lead-up to the rampage and in its bloody aftermath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Once and Future Riot\u003c\/i\u003e, Joe Sacco immerses himself in Uttar Pradesh, speaking to government officials, political leaders, village chiefs, and especially the victims, who were mostly landless peasants, in a quest to understand this riot as an archetype of political violence. In the process, he probes the role of savagery in a democracy; the power of crowds, rather than leaders, to influence the course of events; the collision of competing narratives; and the accounts that perpetrators construct to explain away their participation in bloodshed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHailed as \"the heir to R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman\" ( \u003ci\u003eEconomist\u003c\/i\u003e), Sacco has chronicled the urgent histories that define the world around us, from the Great War to Gaza. Here, he turns his masterful visual reportage to a story that is specific to India but with implications and resonance for all precarious multiethnic, multiracial societies everywhere.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoe Sacco \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of \u003ci\u003eFootnotes in Gaza\u003c\/i\u003e, for which he received the Ridenhour Book Prize and the Eisner Award, as well as \u003ci\u003ePaying the Land\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePalestine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eJournalism\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSafe Area Gorazde, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eWar on Gaza, \u003c\/i\u003eboth also Eisner Award winners. His comics reporting has appeared in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHarper's Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Portland, Oregon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metropolitan Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51502213890333,"sku":"9781250880260","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/5897\/files\/Screenshot2026-05-27at9.27.39pm.png?v=1779931675","url":"https:\/\/www.middleeastbooks.com\/products\/the-once-and-future-riot-by-joe-sacco","provider":"Middle East Books and More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}