Celestial Bodies

Abdallah, the son of a date merchant and sometime slave trader, is one of the novel’s most important figures, even if he is often sidelined by the stories of others. As someone who has tried his whole life to step out from his father’s shadow, who has struggled with his own legitimate businesses, and knows the complicated and difficult nature of parenthood firsthand, he embodies many of the novel’s themes.

Added to this, Abdallah is the only character in the book to provide a first-person narrative perspective. Abdallah narrates several chapters as he takes a long-haul flight to Frankfurt. Drifting in and out of sleep, plagued by memories and regrets, he finds himself recounting events from his life. These memories are not in a chronological order: they are stream of consciousness, revealing Abdallah’s own objective perspective on the events of the past.

Of all the events that Abdallah recalls, there seems to be one moment which sticks with him and haunts him more than any other. When his father discovered that Abdallah stole his gun, he tied up his son and dangled him down a well. The event is traumatic.