I Live Here back

"There are too many untold stories."

An immensely moving and also deeply unsettling book which is described by Mia Kirshner as a paper documentary of an intimate journey to humanitarian crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico and AIDS in Malawai. Realising she knew relatively little about how other people lived around the world she was shocked to find out just what some people have to endure to survive. Contained within this particular work are four separate books dedicated to shedding a little light on what goes on in some of the murkier corners of existence and I found all four books extremely informative and disturbing in equal measure. And this is wonderfully conveyed through a mixture of text (first-hand accounts or stories from locals), photographs, artwork and comics including new material by Joe Sacco. The whole style put me in mind at times of Lynda Barry's WHAT IT IS, and also (and this may just be a personal observation) David Mack's style of artful communication, which is most definitely a good thing. It's nice to see that someone can take such incredibly upsetting material and turn it into something so profoundly entertaining (which it most definitely is), engaging and most certainly affecting.