Autobiographical art: Lebanon's Daily Star profiles 26-year-old cartoonist Riad Sattouf, who's begun to make a name for himself in France with his first two graphic novels Manuel du Puceau (Handbook for a Virgin), and Les Jolis Pieds de Florence (Florence's Pretty Feet), which which won the 2003 Rene Goscinny prize for best BD writer. His next work is the autobiographical Ma Circoncision (My Circumcision), recounting his youth as the son of a French mother and Syrian father:

"In Ma Circoncision, Sattouf recounts how one day his cousins notice that he isn't circumcised. He is immediately accused of being an Israeli, the worst insult the children can think of. Sattouf, who was blond as a child, lies in bed wondering if he is adopted. 'Perhaps I really was Israeli?'

"From the very first day my difference was apparent. I was the only foreigner in the village ... I went to the Muslim school and studied the Koran. We traveled to France sometimes so I knew there was another way of life. But the village was a place out of time, in a parallel dimension."