There have been many books about the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. Award-winning French illustrator and graphic novelist Joann Sfar’s newly translated graphic memoir, To Life, originally published in France in 2024 under the title Nous Vivrons (We Will Live), focuses largely on what came afterward.

On that dark day, Sfar was in Paris, celebrating his birthday at a party with friends, many of them Jews or Arabs. Throughout the day, he and his guests received updates from friends and family in Israel. What stayed with him, however, was that many other friends never checked in to see how he was doing—not then or in the days and weeks that followed.

Distraught, he turned to drawing, creating over several months a work that combines a deeply personal diary with an almost journalistic exploration of Jewish and Israeli fears and uncertainties.

Sfar is the author and artist of over 150 graphic novels, with his Rabbi’s Cat series perhaps the best known. Blending Jewish culture, philosophy and folklore, many of his works reflect his own mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazi heritage, rendered in his loose, expressive artistic style.

For To Life, Sfar spoke with French Jews about their experiences, including public figures such as Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, a prominent voice within French Jewry. He also traveled to Israel to talk with Jews and Arabs.

Sfar’s writing is economical, employing his trademark humor and wry observations while conveying the depths of his despair over the Hamas attacks, the hostages, the ensuing war
and the antisemitism that has suffused French society. His illustrations—line drawings shaded in blues or grays—allow the text to be the primary focus, the images underscoring emotional moments.

When discussing his chai necklace, he writes, “I am a part-timer when it comes to courage.” The accompanying illustration is of his bearded alter ego with the chai necklace prominently displayed on his chest. In the next panel, he admits that he sometimes buttons up his shirt to hide it. When he shares an instance of “a stupid rich kid” parroting false history or twisting facts on social media, he writes, “You can’t fight TikTok” besides a drawing of him looking at the reader with a helpless smile.

While these are sentiments that many readers may recognize, they hit differently when punctuated by his expressive illustrations.

A wide swath of information fills this book, from his mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazi family history to a blunt, factual recounting of the creation and development of Israel.

The history is interwoven with his conversations with Israelis: Raw, heartbreaking vignettes from October 7 first responders and soldiers; displaced residents from the Gaza border communities and from the North; and Israeli Arab cab drivers, among others.

He draws a Druze army medic playing guitar for his army unit, noting that it reminds him of Leonard Cohen playing for Israeli soldiers during the Yom Kippur War. He documents the tightrope many Israeli Arabs walk: “At the moment, Arabs aren’t saying much in public. They’re walking on eggshells. Whatever they say, it will be held against them, either by Israeli public opinion or by the other Arabs.”

To Life resists platitudes and certainties. At more than 425 pages, the book is heavy, literally and emotionally. Some readers may need to take breaks. Over and over, Sfar returns to his theme: how Jews and Israelis are navigating life with tears and humor, music and creativity.

Nearly three years after that dark day, daily life for many Jews remains exhausting. There is no tidy resolution at the end of To Life, only a reflection of reality and a reminder that we, and life, go on. 

Jaime Herndon is a writer and avid reader. Her work can be found at Book Riot, Kveller and other places.