3.5 stars
Thank you so much @sandstonepress for sending me Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi in my attempt to read ALL the translated works from the Man Booker International long-list - and a huge congrats on this one being shortlisted! I enjoyed it, and I think had I read it when I was not working 13 days in a row with zero time to read I would have loved it a lot more.
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I read the first 100 pages over 4 whole days and for me, 25 pages a day is just not enough to get into the flow of a book and it made me feel like the book itself was stilted - it’s not. Once I got home and I had my evenings to read again, I realised that the short chapters and different perspectives used made it very compelling and easy to become absorbed in.
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It’s a family saga (you know I love a family saga), focusing on three sisters in a village in Oman. Mayya, Asma and Khawla are all going through various stages of relationships, marriages, love and loss, and all these stories intertwine to create rather a vast and multifaceted story.
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I was in awe of the translation as the writing felt so smooth and readable - I studied Arabic for a year in my first year of uni and it is a HARD (but beautiful!) language and Marilyn does a fantastic job with it. There was quite a lot of poetry included (all the lovers very much enjoy reciting poems at each other) which I will admit lost me somewhat, but overall I enjoyed it and I think I’d benefit from a reread where I could give the first 100 pages the attention they deserve!