Getting books like The Golem and the Jinni before publication is the best part of working at Indigo. We read advance copies to guess a book’s prospects, give feedback to the publisher, and chat with other early readers on Goodreads. But, on occasion, books so seize our imaginations and make such industry noise that we have to tell customers about them early. Books of this calibre turn us into excited kids with a secret. And we’re not very good secret keepers.
I won’t dwell on the plot of The Golem and the Jinni because the tension of its many threads holds it together until a pitch-perfect ending. Spoilers abound. Instead, I'll talk about two magical immigrants, who make Helene Wecker's debut book into the old-fashioned fairy tale we loved as boys and girls. Chava is a golem fashioned from clay, a drudge tied to her master. She feels the emotions of others, so to serve them better. But this creature from Jewish folklore was never meant for a rabbi who wished her choose and chase her own wants. In obedience to him and straining against her nature, Chava must learn to serve herself. Also chafing against unnatural bonds is Ahmad, a jinni. He is an insatiable and narcissistic spirit born of fire, but shackled to a human body by ancient magic. He is a man always on the edge of his Lebanese neighbourhood, the law, and mortality. A meeting between these opposite characters – and the communities they bring with them – is inevitable, but its outcome unpredictable.
The Golem and the Jinni is a masterwork of time and place. It could only happen when and where it does. The kin ties and animosities of immigrant New York pull the folklore of the old world into the new world where old stories are retold and new ones begin. These stories – of family, of secrets, of magic, and of far-off lands and times – fill The Golem and the Jinni. And such stories remain the best ones – the ones we never tire of and the ones we return to again and again.
>> Read Chapter 1 of The Golem and the Jinni.
>> Pre-order The Golem and the Jinni, on sale April 23rd from HarperCollins.