WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 17OPEN BOOK|Column
“Marilyn had by then secured a translation grant from the
Anglo-Omani society,” Buchan says. “She shared the translation
with me and later introduced me to Jokha.”
Buchan read it and “immediately wanted to reread it, to get
to know it better,” he says, adding, “I think all readers, whether
connected to publishing or not, fall into—sometimes unfortu-
nate—reading patterns, and Celestial Bodies is, among so many
other things, a novel that defies conventions that English-
language readers might anticipate. It is also confident in its
construction and brave in its use of narrative time, and it
continues to fascinate me. As I believe I said to Marilyn, ‘What’s
not to love?’ ”
Though Buchan submitted it widely, it occurred to him that
Scottish publishers might be particularly interested because of
Alharthi’s connection to Edinburgh. He sent it off to Sandstone,
a small independent press, who told him that it would publish
the novel “with energy and ambition.”
The contract with Sandstone was signed in May 2017 for
world English rights, and, after what Booth says was a light edit
by Kay Farrell, the book was published in the U.K. in June 2018.
When Celestial Bodies won the Man Booker International
Prize in May 2019, Jonathan Lee, editor-in-chief of indie press
Catapult (and a lauded author in his own right), says he was
intrigued. “The book sounded interesting to me,” he recalls,
“and we were looking to publish international fiction.”
Lee notes that his interest was piqued by the idea of “the
first Omani woman” to be translated into English. There
are five million people in Oman, he tells me—roughly thesame population of Ireland. “Think how many women writers
are there.”
Lee was also interested in what the novel would show him,
explaining that Celestial Bodies is a “window into a little-known
world.” He mentions the thousands of books that cross his desk,
noting that few of them appeal to both “head and heart.” This
book, he says, has “literary craft and structure but with an emo-
tional core.”
Lee acquired U.S. rights to Celestial Bodies at auction.
According to Buchan, Sandstone arranged the contract with
Catapult, which also acquired Alharthi’s second novel, Narinjah,
which will be published in English as Bitter Orange. (Alharthi
has also published story collections, a children’s book, and three
novels in Arabic.)
Celestial Bodies publishes in the U.S. on October 15 and to
date has sold in 14 territories in addition to the U.K. and U.S.
Catapult’s marketing plans include independent bookseller
outreach, a national media campaign, and academic and library
promotion.
“My work is fiction and not a mirror image of Oman,”
Alharthi says. “But I hope readers will see the country through
new eyes and be interested in learning more about it. I write
about women and families, but what I ultimately write about
is the human condition.” ■Jokha Alharthi
Marilyn BoothJonathan LeeCharles Buchan
© ILHAMALHARTHI© TANJALERNWEISS© BETTECHAPMAN