By the Book: Book Club November 2019 - Celestial Bodies

This month’s book club takes a journey to a place that isn’t often visited in global fiction - Oman from the late 1800s to present day. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi is the first novel from a Gulf country to win the Man International Booker Prize, and Alharthi is the first female Omani author to have her work translated into English. Starting with the tale of three sisters raised in a deeply patriarchal society, Alharthi uses the multigenerational family saga to reflect on the story of a rapidly modernising nation. We wrap things up with a discussion of books that introduced us to new countries and cultures.