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 losses and loves
