Fax from Sarajevo

by Joe Kubert

Book Overview

1992 was the year the war broke out in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was the year that Ervin Rustemagic - an international businessman found himself and his family trapped in a city under siege. Ervin's only means of communication to the outside world was via his fax machine. Ages 14+.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569713464
• ISBN13: 9781569713464
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.3" x 10.7"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Society Unraveled

I heard about this book when it first came out and I simply had to check it out. Why would a well-known artist like Joe Kubert abandon the hum-drum of fictional comics to produce a full-length journalistic book...? How could he expect it to even sell? When the Cranberries wrote a song about Sarajevo, comparing the hatred there to that of Northern Ireland, the topic of Joe's book made me sit up and listen. And I am so glad I did. Joe's connection to the subject matter is personal, and I think that this one fact makes this book a classic work of literature in its own time. Despite his bias because of his closeness to the situation, Joe takes the time to present the complexity of the situation in Bosnia with his art and editorial commentary. And for this I am very thankful. When I traveled to Croatia in 1997, this book gave me an emotional "frame of reference" from which to speak to the people I met, and I was met with passionate affirmations of the fear, frustration, and outrage that the people there were feeling, being threatened by people who hated them, not for political reasons, but for their ancestry or religion. Imagine: You walk outside one day and suddenly people on the street are drawing lines between people where they never drew them before. They taunt, persecute, even shoot at people who look just like them, went to school with them, and live across the street from them. This is not a phenomenon limited to Bosnians. It's a human phenomenon, and it's happening right now, in the U.S. between narrow-minded Americans and people who they fear for illegitimate reasons. Kubert succeeds in framing, accurately, how, given the right chain of events, the seeming tight knot of trust and brotherhood in society can quickly unravel.

It made me understand more than months of media coverage

I'm Italian, I live very close to where all this happened. Yet, as it was happening, tons and tons of media coverage were not able to communicate the scope and the size of this unbelievably tragic war. But after I read this book I felt my stomach wrenching at the mere thought of what happened just a few hours from my home. This book is a great testimoniance of an horrible massacre that happened under our very eyes.While the books deserves 5 stars for its documentaristic merits, as far as its "literary merits" go there are some flaws. Joe Kubert's art is too "heroic", as if the author was not able to "get rid of his ability" of making a war story or a super hero story so powerful and involving. But this is no war fantasy, this is the reality and I feel like Joe Kubert, despite the tremendous work, is not really able to convey all the emotions and his storytelling feels, overall, a little bit cold.What really puts the book on its tracks are the protagonist's numerous faxes (remember! this is a true biographical story) which are enclosed in the book just following or preceding Joe Kubert's renditions of the same fact. The effect of the comic art and the faxes combinated is truly devastating making this book, as a whole, a true emotional experience and a great lesson in modern history (and humanity).An important and enriching read. I'm now anxiously waiting for Joe Sacco's "Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995"

A Must Read Book!

As a University student who is currently studying the topic of genocide, I had my first lesson of what genocide really is after reading Joe Kubert's book "Fax From Sarajevo". Joe Kubert, the author, really opened my eyes to this international problem of war crimes when he explicitly described the atrocious conditions and slaughterous events of the 18 month siege in Bosnia. The story brought me to my knees and put tears in my eyes when I finished reading the documented true life story of a family.I have such admiration for the Rustemagic family, the author and also my professor for educating me some more on a topic that I was once ignorant on and thought it was a foreign enigma. I was impressed by the families strong will to survive during this murderous event, and leave Bosnia in the middle of an ethnic cleansing campaign by the Serb Army, which could have easily taken their lives.I highly suggest that future readers of the book take into account that victims and survivors of all genocides are the ones who are the "True Hero's" of war.

The Power of Image and Text

In the pages of this book are probably the most heart-gripping images ever put to print. Joe Kubert, a 50 year veteran of the comic book industry and one of the finest graphic storytellers alive, has brought to the world the harrowing tale of cartoonist and publisher Ervin Rustemagic and his family, trapped in Sarajevo during the 1992-93 seige. The plight of short supplies, unseen snipers, an impotent worldwide bureaucracy, the ever-present threat of violent death, the deceptively euphemistic horror of "ethnic cleansing", and no means of escape would have brought weaker people to their knees. Rustemagic's true story of survival, in the purest sense, is a nightmarish, but necessary read, to understand what the Sarajevans endured on a daily basis. Told in a combination of painstakingly detailed panels (some of Joe Kubert's finest work ever), segments of fax transmissions (Rustemagic's only means of contact with the outside world), and a collection of photographs taken during the seige. This is a story that must be told, so the world will not dare forget.

Heartrendering truth of man against humanity. A MUST READ.

The first line of the fly-leaf says it all. "In 1945, we told the world, NEVER AGAIN. In 1992, we forgot our promise." This illustrated, hard-cover book by Joe Kubert, transports the reader to the battle grounds of Sarajevo during its most perilous times. It serves as a reminder to those of us who remember 1945, yet is important to the youth of the world as a warning. Graphic yet not gory, it is a true story of survival. Mr. Kubert's ability to portray such a historical event in comic book form is ingenious. It's a book you won't be able to put down, but you'll have to, if only to regain your composure. "FAX FROM SARAJEVO" has less pages than "War and Peace," but is a book of epic proportion