Hamid Sulaiman's 'Freedom Hospital' Graphic Novel Released by ADD Editore

ADD Editore, a Turin-based publisher, has released 'Freedom Hospital', a graphic novel by Syrian artist Hamid Sulaiman (born 1986 in Damascus). The book, set in a clandestine hospital in a small provincial town in northern Syria controlled by the Assad regime, follows eleven characters including a Kurd, an Alawite, a Franco-Syrian journalist, members of the Free Army, and a radical Islamist. The hospital, established by protagonist Yasmine, becomes a microcosm of Syrian society's complexities, exploring themes of political engagement, betrayal, and fractured friendships under the omnipresent shadow of war. Sulaiman, who fled Syria on August 17, 2011, first to Egypt and then to France in 2012, where he now lives as a political refugee, wrote the book to express his personal viewpoint rather than to explain the conflict. The black-and-white work won the English Pen Award 2017 and the Burgess Grant 2017. It will be available in Italian bookstores from April 15, 2018, priced at €19.50 (288 pages, ISBN 9788867831876). This follows ADD Editore's previous publication on immigration, the award-winning photo novel 'La Crepa' (2017) by Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril.