Along the Libyan coast in 19th-century Benghazi, thousands of African slaves line the shoreline. They’ve been kidnapped or forcibly sold to Libyan caravans to serve their white masters in sub-Saharan Africa and the brutal living and working conditions they endure are laid out in “The Slave Yards,” the latest novel by the critically acclaimed author and academic Najwa Bin Shatwan. Shortlisted for the 2017 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Shatwan’s incredible tale adds another shadow to the dark history of slavery, highlighting the resilience of the men and women who pushed forward amid the greatest inhumanity through one of the darkest periods in history. A second-generation free woman, Atiqa, who is described as “long-suffering and silent, like a boulder that endures the pounding of the salty waves year in and year out without being eroded away,” has lived most of her life in the “slave yards,” a stretch of the Benghazi coastline that nobody wants. She grows up in a shack with her aunt Sabriya, who is black, Miftah, a blue-eyed, blond-haired orphan, and herself, who is dark-skinned but different.