I've read one of Abirached's graphic novels before, and now - as then - I'm so impressed by her art. It's entirely black and white, and consists almost primarily of thick, strong lines and solid blocks of colour. It's detailed without being fussy, and really deceptively simple. I thoroughly enjoy it.

The storytelling, too, is excellent, and leaves the reader to fill in a lot of the gaps. Given that a lot of the conversation here is either directed at, or in the presence of, two very young children (the author and her younger brother) this is no doubt both accurate and deliberate. In the middle of the Lebanese civil war, Abirached and her sibling are left alone in the family apartment for a short time, while their parents sneak through sniper-filled streets to check on relatives. They're very late coming home, and the kids are limited to the apartment's small foyer, the safest room in the building due to its reinforced walls and lack of windows. There's shelling all around, and as they wait, they're joined by pretty much every adult in the building, as the neighbours come together to make sure the kids are alright, feeding them cake and distracting them from absence and bombardment - one of the neighbours is a teacher, and acts out passages from Cyrano de Begerac. It's all very reassuring and kind, even though as a reader it's plain that the adults fear the worst. There's a happy ending, thankfully, but that doesn't take away from the very well-drawn tension of the piece, or its essential humanity.