When Guido Ostanel, the editorial director of the Italian publishing house BeccoGiallo, found a book proposal about Yemen waiting on his office desk two years ago, he was immediately captivated. “In Italy, and in the West in general, this country and the current war haven’t made headlines in newspapers, let alone books lately,” he told Al-Monitor.
The proposal consisted of a storyboard and several sketches — a true teaser for an unusual graphic novel about an Arab country about which little was known except the violence and suffering caused by the Yemen war. It was the work of two women, cartoonist Paola Cannatella and documentary filmmaker Laura Silvia Battaglia.