CHICAGO: A finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature, journalist and novelist Samar Yazbek’s “Planet of Clay” is a first-person account of Rima Salem Al-Mahdawy who is living through the Syrian war. Born and raised in Damascus, Rima cannot speak but has an innate instinct to walk. For her own safety, however, she is always tied to a person or object.