The autobiographical memoir of a Italian humor cartoonist who volunteered to support and observe the Kurdish resistance in Syria as a journalist and aid worker. He winds up in Ayn al-Arab, a majority-Kurd town in the Rojava region of Syria, on the front lines against the encroaching Islamic State, and there he receives a heartbreaking education into the Syrian Civil War. DESCRIPTION KOBANE CALLING is the autobiographical memoir of a young Italian cartoonist, writing and drawing under the nom-de-plume Zerocalcare, who volunteers with the Rojava Calling organization and heads into the Middle East to support and observe the Kurdish resistance in Syria as they struggle against the advancing forces of the Islamic State. He winds up in the small town of Mesher, near the Turkish-Syrian border as a journalist and aid worker, and from there he travels into Ayn al-Arab, a majority-Kurd town in the Rojava region of Syria. As he receives an education into the war from the Kurdish perspective, he meets the women fighting in the all-female Kurdish volunteer army (the Yekeineyen Parastina Jin, or Women’s Defense Units), struggling to simultaneously fight off the Islamic State even as they take strides for Kurdish independence and attempt a restructuring of traditional patriarchal Kurdish society. In a story and style at once humorous and heartbreaking, Zerocalcare presents clear-eyed reportage of the fight against the Islamic State from the front lines. • The book was a best seller in Italy (#1 on the Italian publishing charts for all books; initial print run of 100k copies) • An official Selection of the Festival of Angouleme, nominated for the FNAC Prize in France, selected for the Grand Prix de la Critique ACBD, the Prix Wolinksi de la BD du POINT, and the Prix Region Central-Val de Loure at the Festival BDBoum a Blois. AUTHOR Written and Illustrated by: Zerocalcare SPECIFICATIONS PAGES: 288 pagesFORMAT: PaperbackSIZE: 6.75" x 9.5" RELEASE DATE Octbber 24, 2017
