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Download high-resolution image Look inside

Bitter Orange Tree

Author Jokha Alharthi
Translated by Marilyn Booth
Look inside
Hardcover
$26.00 US
Catapult
On sale May 10, 2022 | 224 Pages | 978-1-64622-003-8
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  • English > Comparative Literature > Major Themes: Gender
  • English > Comparative Literature > Modern Comparative Literature
  • English > Comparative Literature: Middle Eastern and North African > Specialized Courses
  • English > Literature > Women and Literature
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Race and Ethnic Studies > Middle East Literature and Drama
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Women's and Gender Studies > Women and Literature
  • About
  • Author
An extraordinary novel from a Man Booker International Prize-winning author that follows one young Omani woman as she builds a life for herself in Britain and reflects on the relationships that have made her from a “remarkable” writer who has “constructed her own novelistic form” (James Wood, The New Yorker).

From Man Booker International Prize–winning author Jokha Alharthi, Bitter Orange Tree is a profound exploration of social status, wealth, desire, and female agency. It presents a mosaic portrait of one young woman’s attempt to understand the roots she has grown from, and to envisage an adulthood in which her own power and happiness might find the freedom necessary to bear fruit and flourish.
 
Zuhour, an Omani student at a British university, is caught between the past and the present. As she attempts to form friendships and assimilate in Britain, she can’t help but ruminate on the relationships that have been central to her life. Most prominent is her strong emotional bond with Bint Amir, a woman she always thought of as her grandmother, who passed away just after Zuhour left the Arabian Peninsula.
 
As the historical narrative of Bint Amir’s challenged circumstances unfurls in captivating fragments, so too does Zuhour’s isolated and unfulfilled present, one narrative segueing into another as time slips and dreams mingle with memories.
JOKHA ALHARTHI was the first Omani woman to have a novel translated into English. Celestial Bodies went on to win the Man Booker International Prize and became an international bestseller. Jokha Alharthi is the author of three collections of short fiction, three children’s books, and four novels in Arabic. She completed a PhD in Classical Arabic Poetry in Edinburgh, and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

MARILYN BOOTH holds the Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Chair for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Oxford University. In addition to her academic publications, she has translated many works of fiction from the Arabic, most recently The Penguin’s Song and No Road to Paradise, both by Lebanese novelist Hassan Daoud, and Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat. Her translation of Celestial Bodies won the Man Booker International Prize.
Jokha Alharthi View titles by Jokha Alharthi

About

An extraordinary novel from a Man Booker International Prize-winning author that follows one young Omani woman as she builds a life for herself in Britain and reflects on the relationships that have made her from a “remarkable” writer who has “constructed her own novelistic form” (James Wood, The New Yorker).

From Man Booker International Prize–winning author Jokha Alharthi, Bitter Orange Tree is a profound exploration of social status, wealth, desire, and female agency. It presents a mosaic portrait of one young woman’s attempt to understand the roots she has grown from, and to envisage an adulthood in which her own power and happiness might find the freedom necessary to bear fruit and flourish.
 
Zuhour, an Omani student at a British university, is caught between the past and the present. As she attempts to form friendships and assimilate in Britain, she can’t help but ruminate on the relationships that have been central to her life. Most prominent is her strong emotional bond with Bint Amir, a woman she always thought of as her grandmother, who passed away just after Zuhour left the Arabian Peninsula.
 
As the historical narrative of Bint Amir’s challenged circumstances unfurls in captivating fragments, so too does Zuhour’s isolated and unfulfilled present, one narrative segueing into another as time slips and dreams mingle with memories.

Author

JOKHA ALHARTHI was the first Omani woman to have a novel translated into English. Celestial Bodies went on to win the Man Booker International Prize and became an international bestseller. Jokha Alharthi is the author of three collections of short fiction, three children’s books, and four novels in Arabic. She completed a PhD in Classical Arabic Poetry in Edinburgh, and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

MARILYN BOOTH holds the Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Chair for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Oxford University. In addition to her academic publications, she has translated many works of fiction from the Arabic, most recently The Penguin’s Song and No Road to Paradise, both by Lebanese novelist Hassan Daoud, and Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat. Her translation of Celestial Bodies won the Man Booker International Prize.
Jokha Alharthi View titles by Jokha Alharthi

Additional formats

  • Bitter Orange Tree
    Bitter Orange Tree
    Jokha Alharthi
    978-1-64622-004-5
    $13.99 US
    Ebook
    Catapult
    May 10, 2022
  • Bitter Orange Tree
    Bitter Orange Tree
    Jokha Alharthi
    978-1-64622-004-5
    $13.99 US
    Ebook
    Catapult
    May 10, 2022

Other Books by this Author

  • Celestial Bodies
    Celestial Bodies
    Jokha Alharthi
    978-1-948226-94-3
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Catapult
    Oct 08, 2019
  • Celestial Bodies
    Celestial Bodies
    Jokha Alharthi
    978-1-948226-94-3
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Catapult
    Oct 08, 2019
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