“when we are away from home, in new and sTrange places,
we get to know ourselves better,” Abdallah, the son of a rich merchant,
thinks as he gazes out an airplane window. It’s a sentiment that will reso-
nate with many readers who immerse themselves in the rich, dense land-
scape of Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies, newly translated into English.
The novel has already made history—as the first by an Omani woman
to be translated into English, and the first originally written in Arabic
to win the Man Booker International Prize. (Marilyn Booth shares the
award for her translation.) Through the lives of three sisters and their
families, Alharthi charts the dizzy ing transformation of Oman in the
decades after it achieved independence from Britain in 1951. During
that time, the Gulf state redefined itself and opened up to Western
commerce.
Originally published in 2010 as Sayyidat al-Qamar (Ladies of the
Moon), the novel is written in short, experimental chapters that shift
between streams of consciousness and memories and across multiple
timelines. Alharthi alternates the first-person voice of Abdallah, the son
of a slave trader (Oman only abolished slavery in 1970), with a third-
person viewpoint following the sisters and multiple other characters.
The results are mixed—the cast is so broad that it’s impossible to follow
the story without regular glances at the family tree provided. But the
variety of perspectives is effective in offering a window into a country
that few Western readers will know intimately.
Celestial Bodies is strongest in its exploration of how the changes
in Oman affect women: within one generation, they are exposed
to ideas from abroad and start moving away from cloistered, rural
life. But Alharthi, who began writing the novel while homesick in
Edinburgh as she completed her Ph.D. in classical Arabic literature,
pushes past stereotypical narratives of Muslim women defying
patriarchy, instead illustrating the difficulties of balancing tradition
and newfound freedoms. It’s a tale that perhaps could have been
written only in a strange new place itself. •
REVIEW
A first from Oman
By Naina Bajekal
COURTESY TIM O’BRIEN
With 2% milk, at least half of adults
had a lower desire to eat
than before breakfast for 3 1/2 hours.
