There is an Arab word, maktub. In essence, it means ‘it is written’, or that there is a certain destiny in life. So it seems that maktub has seldom rung so true as in the 2017 book Asterix and the Chariot Race, where not only is the character of the famous Roman masked charioteer called ‘Coronavirus’, but he is modelled on none other than Alain Prost, while his the tycoon sponsor Lupus is based on Silvio Berlusconi! The 37th book in the Asterix series and the third written by Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrated by Didier Conrad was released worldwide in more than 20 languages on 19 October 2017 in an initial print run of 5 million copies. The astounding part of this is that Coronavirus...
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