The Arabic novel Sayyidāt al-Qamar by the Omani author Jokha al-Harthi was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2019 in its English translation Celestial Bodies by Marilyn Booth. The book is a family novel that describes and reflects on the transformation of Omani society over three generations into the modern country it is today. A German translation from the Arabic original by Claudia Ott is now available as a manuscript and will be published soon.
Hardly any contemporary translator has as much experience with Arabic literature in all its breadth as Claudia Ott. Her main work is the new translation of the classic One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights).
The translator gives an insight into the art of translation, explains her unique translation technique, reports on exciting discoveries of unknown Arabic sources, presents examples from all texts and reads from the manuscript of her translation of Jokha al-Harthi's novel Sayyidāt al-Qamar.
