---
product_id: 111456910
title: "Celestial Bodies Paperback – International Edition, March 5, 2019"
brand: "jokha alharthi"
price: "€ 53.30"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.com.cy/products/111456910-celestial-bodies-paperback-international-edition-march-5-2019
store_origin: CY
region: Cyprus
---

# Celestial Bodies Paperback – International Edition, March 5, 2019

**Brand:** jokha alharthi
**Price:** € 53.30
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Celestial Bodies Paperback – International Edition, March 5, 2019 by jokha alharthi
- **How much does it cost?** € 53.30 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.cy](https://www.desertcart.com.cy/products/111456910-celestial-bodies-paperback-international-edition-march-5-2019)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    A Deep Dive into Modern Oman
  

*by M***L on Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2020*

A deep dive into the intertwined lives of the people of a small Omani village, spanning a good (non-linear) chunk of the 20th century.A blurb on the back cover calls the writing ‘elliptical’, though in the early going it might be better described as confusing, or ever frustrating. But stick with it; before long it evens out and the intent of the style becomes clear. The unfolding themes, recurring imagery, and slow teasing out of the various stories come together to give this novel a power it would not have had if it had been written in a more traditional or linear fashion. Switching character focus with each chapter, and jumping around in time, the narrative is built to allow later chapters to inform earlier ones, and to slowly reveal the truth of the people who populate this story. Celestial Bodies isn’t an easy read, but it is a good introduction to a place and a culture that are both fascinating and underrepresented in world literature.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    “Al-Zahra”…
  

*by J***I on Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2021*

Khawla is one of three sisters who discovers that the life-defining story about souls that are split apart and are forever searching restlessly for completion would find rest only when they were reunited did not come from “The Dove’s Necklace” but from the lesser known subject book. May that perfect fit still be found.Jokha Alharthi won the Booker International Prize in 2019 for this novel, the first Arab author to be awarded the prize. In her acceptance speech she stressed the universal nature of some of her themes. True enough. But I also feel that this excellent novel is deeply rooted in the particular circumstances of Oman, which further enhanced my reading enjoyment.The novel was smoothly translated from Arabic into English by Mary Booth. I had read another work that Booth had translated: Rajaa Al Sanea’s “The Girls of Riyadh.”The core of Alharthi’s novel is three generations of one Omani family. In terms of historical development however, those three generations spanned 10 generations or more in many other countries. The key date is 1970. In that year Sultan Qaboos overthrew his father, Sultan Said bin Taimur, who was “feudal, reactionary and isolationist,” per Wikipedia. Schooling, health care, and many other aspects of the country were stuck in the equivalent of the European Middle Ages. Most Omanis were illiterate, including almost all the women. One of Qaboos first acts was to outlaw slavery, one of the very last countries in the world to do so. (I personally continue to believe that there are many forms of slavery that continue to exist in numerous countries of the world.) And Qaboos, who would provide an enlightened rule for half a century, until his death in 2020, largely brought the country into the modern world, with good schooling, education, and a reasonable social safety net.The ramifications of the not-so-distant past of slavery is a key aspect of Alharthi’s novel. In 1926 the 15-year old slave, Ankabuta, would give birth to Zafira, who is a central character in this novel, slave, child-care minder, and yes, concubine. Zafira’s son, Sanjar, though nominally “free” after 1970, flees the on-going social discrimination, and goes to Kuwait, where he works, well, much as a slave, in the souks. Hum.Djinns are omnipresent in the lives of this family and the residents of the village of Al-Awafi. Homage and care must always be taken with them. And how could an uprooted basil bush lead to a death? Alharthi is an excellent story teller, backing and filling the story among the characters, throwing out a hint here and there, and ultimately telling you the answer. There is a “desert and the sown,” to use Gertrude Bell’s formulation, to life in Oman. Awafi is a coastal agricultural village, with irrigation practices using the falaj system that dated back millennia. In fact, Azzan’s bride, Salima, bears the “falaj” nickname, earned under some unique circumstances. Azzan can leave his home in the evening to visit the nearby Bedouin encampment for a bit of camaraderie, and use the excursion to obtain a bit more… it is the Moon, you understand, and other bewitching celestial bodies. Or is it djinns?Much of the novel centers on the three daughters of Azzan and Salima: Mayya, “the seamstress,” bookish Asma, and Khawla, noted for her vanities and mirrors. London (imagine the scandal of naming your daughter after a city! Hum!), who is the daughter of Mayya and Abdullah, also has a prominent role. She will become a doctor, driving her BMW to Muscat to work. Each of the women find their own orbits in the cosmos that is modern-day Oman.Oman was once a flake of my life. My family and I spent six days there over the Winter school holidays of 1997. Three of those six days were spent camping, in splendid isolation, 50 km south of Muscat, on the beach. I remember reading a guide to Oman before going that cautioned Arabs from the other countries of Al Jazeera (as well as the expats who had adopted the local driving customs) that in Oman they really must obey the speed limit… or there were consequences. Imagine that. A country different. We also circled around to the desert side, and drove high onto Jebel Akhtar (which is never translated by Booth, but means “Green Mountain”). There was an enormous cedar tree that three people could not link their outstretched arms around its trunk. I would have been more careful if I had known about all the land mines and bombs dropped by the British in the 1950’s, as Alharthi describes.Alharthi has written a truly great novel on Oman and its people and history. 6-stars. I’ll conclude with a plug for another great Arab writer still languishing in obscurity: Yousef Al-Mohaimeed. His “Where Pigeons Don’t Fly,” is an incisive portrait of modern-day Riyadh and his “Munira’s Bottle” is also excellent. Hear that, Mr. Booker!

### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Difficult to read at times
  

*by D***A on Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2019*

This book takes us to an unusual setting: a village in Oman on the margins of the capital Muscat. It tells the story of a family and a number of other characters around it, from after the second world war to more or less the 2000s. The numerous characters are powerfully sketched and the story of the transition from a world that feels ancient to modernity is compelling. However, the language full of images and religious formulas, the frequent dreams and hallucinations of the character that tells half of the story and most of all the sheer number of characters that are mentioned through the chapter (often very passingly, and only many chapters after  their story is told so the reference becomes clear) made this book a bit of an ordeal for me. The book ends when it has more or less told the story of all characters, but there is no real ending, although this is normal these days, and I failed to grasp how some of the characters relate to the main story. I would have been most grateful to have a presentation of the characters or a family tree to look up at the beginning of the book, to help the novices of Arab literature to navigate the story.

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*Product available on Desertcart Cyprus*
*Store origin: CY*
*Last updated: 2026-03-22*