This year’s Man Booker International Prize winner was announced yesterday.
Celestial Bodies
by Jokha Alharthi
translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth
purchase from Amazon
Congratulations to Jokha Alharthi and Marilyn Booth!
While many folks over at the Goodreads group enjoyed this book, it still ranked fifth of six in the consensus rankings (see here). The favorite? Depending on the ranking method, either Juan Gabrial Vásquez’s The Shape of Ruins or Annie Ernaux’s The Years. If you’ve read any of the books, I’d love to hear your thought there or below.
This book was selected from the shortlist you can see below.
Also on the shortlist was The Years, by Annie Ernaux, which I recently read and enjoyed very much. The French author chronicles the years from 1941 through 2006, by way of a variety of memories of popular songs, clothing styles, photos, television programming, advertising slogans, brand names, various French dialects, sexual mores which change throughout the years, and a lot more. Since I was born in 1941, I quite enjoyed looking at these shifts and changes that took place at about the same time period during which I moved from early childhood through (ahem) old age.This was given added interest by the fact that the author was moving through her life in France rather than the U.S. I thought it was written with great aplomb and was superbly crafted with a sure hand. Ernaux has written several well-received books, usually employing an autobiographical narrative, and has been the recipient of numerous literary awards.This is the only book on the short-list that I’ve read and I strongly recommend it.
Trevor:
I went on Amazon from your link and it says “Celestial Bodies” is unavailable and out of print. Wins the Man Booker International Prize and goes out of print? Was that part of the prize? Or does it prove what she is writing about? I guess the more likely explanation is that whatever was left from the last print run sold out. But are there no more plans for a new print run? Or was this the way back in the field horse that ran an unbelievable race to win the competition against all odds? Whatever you can find out on this. I realize maybe I wasn’t fast enough ordering it. If I were either author of this book, I would be really ticked off at the publisher. And I really appreciate you running its win in the Mookse and for Paul Fulcher’s awesome review.
Larry B.
Trevor:
I was just now today, 5/26, able to order “Celestial Bodies” on Amazon from the link on Paul Fulcher’s review page less than 24 hours earlier, 5/25, when it was listed as “currently unavailable”. The moon and/or the Amazon team tasked with ameliorating this situation came through brilliantly on this so that the quick remedy is very well done. I sent an email to Amazon Customer Service and Shahanaz S. replied to my email less than 2 hours after it was sent. She wrote, “There are many orders for the same book right now and our respective department are trying their level best to get the inventory as soon as possible by contacting the publisher. I hope that you would understand that being the retailers, we are totally dependent on our publishers and suppliers for the books.” Further, she suggested I check back frequently to see if the book’s availability status had changed and sure enough, it had, in very short order. So thanks for anything you might have done and for initially creating interest in this book by letting us know of its Man Booker International win on the Mookse.