Photo: Getty ImagesOmani author Jokha Alharthi has won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize for Celestial Bodies, the story of three sisters in a desert country confronting its slave-owning past and a complex modern world. Alharthi is the first Arabic-language writer to get the prize and the first female writer from Oman to be translated into English. The prize is a counterpart to the Man Booker Prize for English-language novels and is open to books in any language that have been translated into English. This is the final year of sponsorship by investment firm Man Group PLC, which is halting backing after 18 years. Starting next year the award will be known as the International Booker Prize.

Source: Otago Daily Times May 21, 2019 22:52 UTC