THE BOOK OF GENOCIDES
An award-winning writer, artist, and descendant of genocide survivors brings history's darkest horrors to life, calling on us to remember, repair, and resist.
A powerful journey through humanity’s most harrowing hours
The Book of Genocides is a stark, immersive graphic novel by award-winning artist Dana Walrath that compels readers to confront some of the most devastating episodes in human history.
Drawing on visual strategies from the disaster-comics tradition of Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman, Walrath traces ten genocides—from the First Peoples of the Americas to the Holocaust, and from Palestine to the Rohingya in today’s Myanmar. By bringing these histories together in a single graphic work, she reveals the systems and processes that make genocide possible—and helps us see how they can be undone.
This powerful book is an unsettling experience, shot through with the emotional gravity of horrific events—not just historical memories but ongoing realities, painful truths that shape our world and demand our action.
“DANA Walrath is an unflinching guide through the long sweep of humanity’s most shameful episodes. This is how art answers back.”
——JOE SACCO author of PALESTINE and THE ONCE AND FUTURE RIOT
“Essential reading. History lesson. Cautionary tale. The Book of Genocides is all this and much more. This breathtaking graphic narrative is as brave as it is beautiful.”
——NICK SOUSANIS, author of UNFLATTENING
“Necessary and heartbreaking. I hope this book helps future generations avoid the mistakes that brought us here.”
——DEENA MOHAMED, author of SHUBEIK LUBEIK
“an ingenious welding of words and pictures, the personal and the historical…Walrath’s vision is deeply humane, and her message couldn't be timelier.”
——ALISON BECHDEL, author of SPENT and FUN HOME
About the Author
Dana Mashoian Walrath
Dana Mashoian Walrath is a writer, artist, and anthropologist. Her award-winning works include Aliceheimer’s, a graphic memoir about her mother’s dementia journey, and Like Water on Stone, a verse novel about the Armenian genocide. Her comics, art, essays, and poetry have been featured by The Nation, The Lancet, Slate, and NPR. Dana Mashoian Walrath lives in Vermont.
The Ten Genocides
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The Genocide of the First Peoples of the Americas
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The Genocide of Black Americans
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The Genocide of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
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The Armenian Genocide
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The Genocide of Jews in the Holocaust
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The Palestinian Genocide
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The Cambodian Genocide
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The Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda
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The Bosnian Genocide
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The Rohingya Genocide
Each chapter begins with a history of one genocide, followed by an interactive component. In these pages, redacted text underscores each genocide’s story. On the facing page, a portrait of a person is divided into three segments—head, torso, and legs—creating a turn-the-flap interactive zine that reveals the countless ways human beings can be dehumanized. Readers are invited to cut along the page guides to assemble this zine. Here, the act of cutting is not desecration but a form of liberation.
