Au nord-est d'Arzew #[nn]

Three boys — one sporting a cowboy hat, one wearing feathers in his hair, one in a pink shirt — stand wide-eyed before an armed soldier on this watercolor cover, a North African village and palm trees stretching out behind them under a bright blue sky. The subtitle Une enfance algérienne ("An Algerian Childhood") sets the tone immediately: this is a coming-of-age story where the games of youth brush up against a world of uniforms and tension. Pacosales, Carlos Maiques, and Alain Bonet bring a warm, painterly touch to what promises to be a heartfelt and honest portrait of growing up in Algeria, published by Steinkis in 2014.