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In Zeina Abirached’s graphic novel A Game for Swallows, black and white do more than depict a scene: they can carry its emotional weight. The French-Lebanese graphic novelist and illustrator says the contrast lets her communicate feelings and sensations while leaving readers room to imagine what is not shown.
What black and white express in A Game for Swallows
“When you draw in black and white, you can express feelings, but also sensations,” Abirached told Diya Isha in a 2025 interview with Scroll.in. She describes white as potentially suggesting “the void, something erased, or light – something open,” and black as “something obscure, closed, or heavy.” These are the associations she brings to her work, not a fixed code that every reader must interpret in the same way.
That ambiguity is part of the method. Rather than label a scene’s emotion, the artist uses visual contrast to shape how it feels. Abirached says she wanted readers to experience those contradictory sensations “without even noticing” and perhaps wonder why a page affects them as it does.
How the story makes danger felt without showing it
A Game for Swallows is based on Abirached’s childhood in Lebanon during the civil war of the 1980s. It narrows its focus to one day and night: her parents are unable to return home, and neighbours gather to look after Abirached and her brother. The book is not a comprehensive history of the war. Abirached chose a child’s perspective and the details of ordinary life under threat.
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She says she did not want to depict violence directly. In the scene she discusses, a character’s father is missing. Instead of showing what happened, the page uses imagined dialogue, black space and an onomatopoeic sound. The reader is left to infer the event. Abirached connects that restraint to her parents’ efforts to protect her as a child, and says she wanted to tell the story in a way that was “aesthetic and tender.” It is her intention for the scene, not a guarantee that all readers will experience it alike.
The domestic details that shape the day and night
Abirached’s account turns on practical routines and relationships, not only on the danger outside. She recalls her parents being with her grandmother when bombing cut off the roads and prevented them from coming home. Inside, neighbours helped care for the children. Their presence gives the story its sense of community amid uncertainty.
- Water: Families stored it in bottles and large containers.
- News and safety: The radio carried information, including where people might be able to go safely.
- Staying indoors: Going outside could mean exposure to sniper fire.
- Neighbours: People brought food and stories, helping make an extraordinary situation part of the children’s daily life.
For Abirached, the graphic-novel form can suggest what it does not state outright, giving readers room to imagine and investigate further. Her emphasis shifts from familiar images of destruction to people trying to get through a day inside their homes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Memory, silence and the origins of the book
Abirached says that after the war ended, people around her often did not talk about it. She also recalls that the history curriculum she encountered stopped in the 1970s or only touched on the conflict’s first year. Those are her recollections in the 2025 interview, not independently verified findings about curriculum across Lebanon.
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Writing the book, she says, was a way to affirm that the war happened and should not be hidden or forgotten. “The idea was simply to express, to tell what happened,” she said. She also describes artists and writers as helping rebuild personal and collective understanding: “We have to rebuild by knowing what happened – rebuild our lives, but also our country and our political life, without amnesia.”
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