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The International Booker Prize Backlist

The International Booker Prize

Key Dates

  1. Longlist

  2. Shortlist

  3. Winner


The 2019 Winner

Celestial Bodies

Jokha Alharthi

Translated by Marilyn Booth from Arabic

Published by Sandstone Press

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 which is slowly redefining itself after the colonial era, to the crossroads of its complex present. Elegantly structured and taut, it tells of Oman’s coming-of-age through the prism of one family’s losses and loves.


The 2019 Shortlist

The 2019 Longlist

The 2019 Judges