Publisher Description
Set in the village of al-Awafi in Oman, 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.
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About Jokha Alharthi
Jokha Alharthi is the author of ten works, including three collections of short fiction, two children’s books, and three novels in Arabic. Celestial Bodies was shortlisted for the Sahikh Zayed Award for Young Writers, and her 2016 novel Narinjah won the Sultan Qaboos Award for culture, art, and literature. Her short stories have been published in English, German, Italian, Korean, and Serbian. Fluent in English, she completed a PhD in classical Arabic poetry in Edinburgh and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.
About Laurence Bouvard
Laurence Bouvard is a professional actress and writer based in London and is chief executive of the North American Actors Association. A native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, she also acts in the United States.