Love and Desire in the Promised Land
Love and Desire in the Promised Land
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By Salomé Parent-Rachdi & Deloupy. Published by Fantagraphics.
Hardcover, 160 pages, Colour, 2026.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict viewed through the lens of romantic relationships. A humanizing journalistic portrait of the intimate lives of ordinary people in Israel and Gaza.
Love and Desire in the Promised Land collects a dozen interviews with real-life citizens of Israel and Gaza navigating messy boundaries in their homes and bedrooms against a background of geopolitical violence.
Collecting interviews conducted before the October 7 attack unleashed a new wave of bloody conflict, the book introduces fascinating individuals and couples who speak frankly about the transgressions that define their experiences with intimacy. The portrayals represent a diverse population, including an interfaith celebrity power couple, an Orthodox gynecologist, a young gay Muslim, a Palestinian American feminist, a Ukrainian Israeli artist, and a Palestinian lesbian in a relationship with an Israeli soldier.
Through these candid conversations, recorded by Parent-Rachdi and illustrated with a warm touch by Deloupy, the authors humanize the people living in Israel and Gaza. As conflict wages around them, these ordinary citizens struggle with their all-too-human urges and desires that drive them to cross borders and boundaries in the name of love and sex.
PRAISE
"This is a stunning work that humanizes groups of people so often defined internationally by their conflict." — Booklist, Starred Review
"A fascinating record of human persistence in the midst of turmoil." — Kirkus
"Like skilled seducers, the authors do not rush. They draw the reader in gradually, until their message finally lands with full force." — Haaretz
"Love and Desire in the Promised Land urges readers to remember the humanity of those whose lives are shaped by the Israeli?–?Palestinian conflict. It is thus vital reading for anyone invested in the conflict." — Jewish Book Council
"Deloupy's fluid, collage-like comics depict the diversity of both humans and landscape; he takes poetic license at evocative moments, and in others turns out journalistic courtroom-style sketches. The result is both joyful and sobering." — Publishers Weekly
