Hamid Sulaiman, trans. from the French by Francesca Barrie. Interlink, $20 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-62371-995-1

The story: At the height of the Syrian Civil War, a young Syrian woman sets up a makeshift hospital in the heart of a city controlled by the Assad regime and, with a friend, shuttles back and forth across the Turkish border in a risky effort to support the hospital’s work.

The author: Sulaiman was born in Syria, escaped to Egypt, and now lives in France.