“Its delicate artistry draws us into a richly imagined community, opening out to tackle profound questions of time and mortality,” she said in a statement announcing the award.

Ms. Alharthi’s book was chosen over efforts by higher-profile names, among them the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk — who won last year’s prize for “Flights” — and Annie Ernaux, the celebrated French author.

Ms. Alharthi’s novel, first published in 2010 as “Ladies of the Moon,” is an at times complex book that follows an Omani family over three generations, from the 1880s to today. “Every character — woman or man, enslaved or free — finds themselves trapped, in some way, by history” as Oman itself changes around them, Marcia Lynx Qualey wrote in a review for The National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates.

The book is “a beautifully achieved account of lives pulling at the edges of change” Michael Cronin wrote in The Irish Times, adding that it also “deftly undermines recurrent stereotypes about Arab language and cultures.” Jane Housham, writing in The Guardian, said although the number of characters was bewildering at times, “the glimpses into a culture relatively little known in the West are fascinating.”

Ms. Alharthi said in an interview published on the Man Booker International Prize’s website that Omani authors want foreign readers to look at the country “with an open mind and heart.” “No matter where you are, love, loss, friendship, pain and hope are the same feelings,” she said, “and humanity still has a lot of work to do to believe in this truth.”