Genre: FICTION
The novel Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated from Arabic into English by Marilyn Booth, is the winner of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize. The story is centered around the lives of three sisters, their three families, and the people around them living in the fictional village of al-Awafi in Oman and its capital city, Muscat.
This plotless novel tells a multi-generational story with multiple narratives through the perspectives of sisters Mayya, Asma, and Khawla as well as Abdallah, Mayya's husband, London, Mayya's daughter, and a few other narratives of minor characters. Alharthi subtly weaves many tales through characters' flashbacks, an omniscient narrator describing the past and giving readers historical context, as well as characters' narratives in the present day while tackling many themes throughout the novel, such as family, parenthood, marriage, divorce, patriarchal women, education, rural versus urban identities, progress and modernization, and complex changes in an urbanizing society set against the backdrop of post-slavery Oman.
Alharthi's poetic and lyrical prose makes it easy for readers to follow the narratives of the multiple narrators while weaving the right amount of social and political commentary throughout the novel. The narrative of Abdallah, Mayya's husband and London's father, is the glue that holds the story together and connects the lives of the multiple characters we encounter, giving readers an insight into his personal contemplation on how childhood trauma impacts adulthood and the harmful effects of toxic masculinity among other things, and the readers can see how this affects him in dream sequences as well as in real life. Alharthi includes Omani proverbs told by characters throughout the novel as well as short poems told by certain characters, like Azzan, in dialogue, which is a great way to immerse the readers in the rich culture she portrays in this story.
The one aspect of the novel that readers might have a hard time adjusting to is the lack of quotation marks for the characters' dialogues. I liked the fact that the chapters were named after the characters' point-of-views instead of being given titles or numbers. One interesting part of the book's format is the different fonts for the different timelines. The chapters set in the past or told through flashbacks are in one font while the chapters set in the present are in another font. Another fascinating aspect of the novel that I particularly enjoyed is the unreliability of memory. We see how different characters recall the same events differently and that just makes the readers wonder which character is recalling the events accurately in truth. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and its unique, beautiful storytelling. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone, particularly college students and readers who enjoy plotless novels. I would give this novel five out of five stars.
Alharithi, Jokha. Celestial Bodies. Translated by Marilyn Booth, Sandstone Press, 2018.
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