Mascat, May 22: Jokha Alharthi, an Omani author has won Man Booker International Prize 2019, the most prestigious award in literature. She has been awarded for her masterpiece ‘Celestial Bodies’, the story of three sisters of a desert country confronting its slave-owning past and a complex modern world.
Jokha Alharthi is the first Arabic language writer winning this prize. ‘Celestial Bodies’ beat five other finalists from Europe and South America. Judging Panel leader historian Bettany Hughes said yesterday that the winning novel was “a book to win over the head and the heart in equal measure.’’