Celestial Bodies

Celestial Bodies (سيدات القمر) is a 2010 novel by Omani author Jokha Alharthi. The novel follows the lives of three sisters and their unhappy marriages in al-Awafi, Oman.

The novel has been translated into over 20 languages and marks the first novel by an Omani woman to be translated into English, as well as the first Omani novel to be translated to Italian. The original novel won the Best Omani Novel Award in 2010 and was longlisted for the Zayed Book Award in the 'Young Author' category in 2011. In 2019, the English translation was awarded the International Booker Prize, with Alharthi and translator Marilyn Booth equally sharing the £50,000 prize. Celestial Bodies is also the first novel to be translated from Arabic to win the prize.

Reception
The review aggregator website Book Marks reported an overall "Positive" rating by critics for the novel, based on 11 reviews: 5 "Rave" reviews, 4 "Positive" reviews, and 2 "Mixed" reviews. Kirkus Reviews described Celestial Bodies as "a richly layered, ambitious work that teems with human struggles and contradictions", while The Irish Times stated the novel "deftly undermines recurrent stereotypes about Arab language and cultures but most importantly brings a distinctive and important new voice to world literature."