Aflaai (PDF) Celestial Bodies
By Jokha Alharthi
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2019Celestial Bodies is set
in the village of al-Awafi in Oman, where we encounter three sisters:
Mayya, who marries Abdallah after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries from
a sense of duty; and Khawla who rejects all offers while waiting for her
beloved, who has emigrated to Canada. These three women and their
families witness Oman evolve from a traditional, slave-owning society
slowly redefining itself after the colonial era, to the crossroads of its
complex present. Elegantly structured and taut, Celestial Bodies is a coiled
spring of a novel, telling of Oman?s coming-of-age through the prism of
one family?s losses and loves.
