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.
“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. It should be on reading lists and syllabi everywhere.”
—Nick Sousanis, author of Unflattening
A powerful immersive journey through humanity’s darkest hours
The Book of Genocides is a haunting graphic narrative that compels readers to confront the darkest chapters of human history not as distant events but as visceral experiences. Dana Mashoian Walrath covers ten major atrocities across five centuries: the mass slaughter of the First Peoples of the Americas, the brutalization of Black Americans, the devastation of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian killing fields, the Rwandan genocide, the Bosnian genocide, the deadly persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, and the genocide in Gaza.
Walrath makes plain that the purpose of genocide is always a land grab, and its central apparatus is dehumanization: each chapter delves into how dehumanization operates, not just through violence but through the political and intellectual systems that enable it. The book’s unique interactive design allows readers to reshape images of victims into grotesque forms mirroring the mental mechanisms of dehumanization. With each page turn, the victims’ humanity is restored, making their suffering undeniable.
The Book of Genocides 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.
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.
Resources
Resources for readers, educators, librarians, and book clubs—including discussion guides, teaching prompts, and suggestions for using the book’s interactive elements—will be available here soon.
COMING SEPTEMBER 2026
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