As it presented several books worthy of attention, the Irish times (June 26, 2020) specified, regarding Dima Wannous’ “The Frightened ones”:
“Mention of a novel set in Syria might suggests a story mired in violence and suffering, but in ‘The Frightened Ones’ by Dima Wannous, translated by Elisabeth Jacquette (Harvilll Secker, 242pp, £12.99) the emphasis is on the anguish of Suleima,

Out of the gutter is a most unusual read: A saga that mixes tragedy, and a dark, off the wall humor.

A daughter and her mother in an apartment in London. Every evening, they meet, with an occasional glass of whisky, going over the times, not so long ago, where they were a large family, all women, living in Damascus.

Sudan, 1968, the military coup taking place in Khartoum echoes all the way to the small rural town of Hajer Narti, where the body of a young girl has just been found in the Nile.