Between Mountains and Memory: A Casi Voice Book Club Discussion of Celestial Bodies from Oman
Casi Voice Book Club: Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
Sunday, 15 November 2026 · 17:00
What happens when the world around you changes faster than the traditions you grew up with?
For our next Casi Voice Book Club, we are travelling to Oman through Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi — the first novel originally written in Arabic to win the International Booker Prize.
Through the lives of three sisters — Mayya, Asma and Khawla — the novel opens the doors to an Omani family across generations. Love and marriage, motherhood, expectations, education, memory and personal freedom intertwine as an old way of life gradually gives way to a new one.
Before we meet: read Celestial Bodies. Then come ready to talk — not for a lecture or literary analysis, but for an open conversation about what the story made us notice, question and feel.
Questions we’ll explore
Which of the three sisters did you understand or connect with most — and why?
How much of our life is really our own choice, and how much is shaped by family and culture?
What does the novel reveal about being a woman in Oman across different generations?
How do love and marriage differ for the women in the book?
Which traditions in the novel feel protective — and which feel restrictive?
What surprised you most about Omani everyday life and culture?
How do mothers and daughters pass expectations, fears and values from one generation to another?
As society becomes more modern, what is gained — and what might be lost?
Was there a character whose choices you strongly disagreed with? Would you judge them differently after understanding their circumstances?
After finishing the novel, did Oman look different to you than you imagined before reading it?
Come having read the book. Leave having seen its world through someone else’s eyes.
A Casi Voice Book Club gathering for curious women who enjoy literature, culture and conversations that continue long after the last page.