Lebanese author Hoda Barakat has won the $50,000 (£39,000) International prize for Arabic fiction (Ipaf) for her novel The Night Mail, which tells the stories of people in exile through their letters.

Billed as the “Arabic Booker”, the Ipaf also provides funding to translate the book into English. The Night Mail has already been acquired by UK publisher Oneworld, which will publish the English version in 2020.

Born in Beirut in 1952, Barakat spent much of her life in Lebanon before moving to France. In five novels, two plays, short stories, a memoir and journalism, Barakat’s work often explores the psychological effects of conflict and the trauma that it can inflict. She was nominated for the Man Booker International prize in 2015. In a 2015 interview with the Guardian, she said: “These books are emotionally difficult to write, and … tell the stories of characters who are either marginal, isolated, or innocent, who are subject to violence that transforms them.”

The Night Mail was selected from six shortlisted works by authors from around the Arabic-speaking world. The chair of judges, Charafdine Majdouline, called the winning book “a highly accomplished novel that stands out for its condensed economy of language, narrative structure and capacity to convey the inner workings of human beings. By choosing to use techniques well-known in novel writing, Barakat faced a challenge, but she succeeded in creatively innovating within the tradition.”

Barakat has said that current events inspired the book. “I chose [the novel’s] final form when scenes of migrants fleeing their countries had penetrated my imagination. Those people who have lost their homes and are scattered over the Earth,” she said.

“At this time, we are seeing a regression in the humanitarian dimension of those civilisations, as countries protect themselves by closing their doors. I hope that this novel, somehow or other, will have given voice to brittle lives, which are judged by others without understanding them or investigating what brought them to their current state.”

The Ipaf is funded by Abu Dhabi’s culture ministry, with support from the Booker Foundation in London. Previous winners have included authors from Morocco, Egypt, Palestine and Libya.