As the world seems to grow more polarized every day, we present writing about countries struggling with internal divisions. Writers detail ethnic conflicts, clashes between factions, and territorial disputes to reveal the human costs of wars at home. In Syria, Wendy Pearlman interviews a dedicated physician risking his life to treat the victims of violence. Palestinian writer Abbad Yahya’s unmoved teen chafes under the intifada. Twenty years after the war, Croatia’s Zoran Janjanin observes the unexpected reunion of two not-quite-star-crossed lovers. Claudia Hernández’s resourceful young girl stares down Salvadoran guerrillas, and graphic novelist Jeroen Janssen returns to the Rwanda he fled during the genocide. In Turkey, Kemal Varol’s minesweeping dog sniffs out bombs and marks his path. Iraqi Nawzat Shamdeen sees the vulnerable son of a martyr literally go underground, and Pema Bhum recalls a doughty teacher’s brilliant rescue of the Tibetan language during the Cultural Revolution.
