Omani Author Zahran Alqasmi's Story About Life, Land and Honey

Is it possible to live in harmony with the land? In his hypnotic third novel centered on a beekeeper living in Oman’s mountainous interior, local author Zahran Alqasmi, an International Prize for Arabic Fiction winner, grapples with this question. A disappointment to his family in his youth, in his adult life, Azzan has focused on the apiary world instead of the human. Earning a living from his hives while contending with the implacable forces of nature that can destroy them, his life is composed of tending his bees and hunting wild honey with his village friends. This is enough for Azzan, until he encounters Thamna, a young shepherd woman who moves her flock from the plains to the mountains as the seasons require. She adds another layer of complexity to his life. But his life in the village takes another turn when Azzan suffers a devastating loss that imperils his carefully constructed world, forcing him to re-evaluate his choices. Featuring Oman’s wadis (river valleys), mountain summits and plains, nature itself becomes a character as the book kaleidoscopes from past to present and person to person. The result is a searching work about our delicate relationship with both society and the natural world, and the mix of courage, tenacity and faith that are required to survive in both.