Celestial Bodies

Celestial 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.

‘Complex and tangled… the glimpses into a culture relatively little known in the west are fascinating.’ – The Guardian

‘A book to win over the head and the heart in equal measure, worth lingering over’ – Bettany Hughes, Man Booker International Judge

‘A beautifully achieved account of lives pulling at the edges of change’ – The Irish Times

‘Blends the rhythms of daily life with magic and legend.’ – Muhammad Barrada

‘Delivers the reader immediately into the world of the marginal, forgotten, most subaltern sectors of society.’ – Ibrahim al-Hajari