The Once and Future Riot is a recent piece of comics journalism by Joe Sacco, published last year. Sacco is best-known for his work Palestine; given his areas of interest, I think if Sacco shows up in your hometown, your hometown has got some issues.
For this book, Sacco went to Muzaffarnagar, India, where a riot erupted between Hindus and Muslims. But as Sacco finds in interviewing the people there, the precise details as to how the violence started and who suffered change depending on who's telling the story (which Sacco presents with his usual skepticism).
The moment I found most fascinating came when Sacco visited a camp of Muslim refugees who had fled after the riot and had yet to return home, despite government assurances that it was safe. One of the refugees spoke passionately about his former Hindu neighbours and the good will that had existed between them. Another refugee responded with the armor-piercing question, "Why are you here, if you have a house there?"
The book does not paint a pretty picture of India but I came away affected by many scenes such as the one I described. It's another fine piece of work by Sacco.
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