![]() ![]() This epic mitosis exponentially augments the story’s narrative power and emotional consequences.Ĭhava and Ahmad have learned to conceal their true identities in order to live among human beings, so it comes as a shock when the newcomers-Yossele the golem and Dima the jinniyeh (a female jinni)-return us violently to the fearful origins of the legends. Wecker’s arithmetic is plain: In the sequel, there are now two golems and two jinn. Like all great storytellers, Wecker knows we can never have enough of a good thing, so Chava and Ahmad are back in The Hidden Palace. The friendship between Chava the golem and Ahmad the jinni in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City seemed as implausible-and as irresistibly alluring-as peace between two immemorially warring civilizations. The reader’s delight was redoubled by this magnificent synthesis of Jewish and Arabian folklore. In that startling and scintillating novel, the author gave life to the inanimate clay of one old legend (the golem) and in the same breath gave complex shape to the shifting sands of another (the jinni). Helene Wecker’s debut, The Golem and the Jinni, materialized like magic on the 2013 literary scene. ![]()
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