June 24, 2024
International Booker Prize winner Alharthi’s eloquent latest (after Celestial Bodies) begins in a rural village in 1980s Oman, where a young mother named Saada rescues an abandoned newborn baby, names her Ghazaala, and takes care of her alongside Saada’s 10-month-old daughter, Asiya. Ghazaala’s and Asiya’s parents then share in raising Ghazaala, and the girls remain close throughout their childhoods. After Saada gives birth to Asiya’s younger sister, Zahwa, Saada ignores 11-year-old Asiya, and Ghazaala consoles her. After three-year-old Zahwa drowns in a canal, Saada slips into despair and dies. Asiya founders under the care of her father, whose heavy drinking prompts Ghazaala’s parents to forbid Ghazaala from seeing Asiya. Though Asiya never reappears in the book, she’s ever-present in Ghazaala’s bittersweet memories. The author builds a multilayered and tender portrait of Asiya’s lingering impact on Ghazaala, exploring how Asiya’s absence makes Ghazaala feel rudderless, causing her to question the expectation that she will feel fulfilled as a wife and mother; and how Ghazaala gains strength from Asiya’s memory in moments of struggle, as when she’s rebuffed by a lover. It’s a worthy entry into the pantheon of stories about female friendship. Agents: Jackie Ko and Emma Herman, Wylie Agency.