Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award
A TIME Best Book of the Year
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
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.
