Samira Ahmed. Little, Brown, $19.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-316-54868-7 Physics-obsessed Chicago teenager Aria Patel has recently been experiencing unexplainable, painful headaches.

Ahmed al-Sharaa is the current president of Syria, having also ousted the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad with his armed rebel Islamist movement Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He is also known by ...