Book description
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013
'I will tell you a story, but it comes with a warning; when you
hear it, you will become someone else.'
He calls himself Alif - few people know his real name - a young
man born in a Middle Eastern city that straddles the ancient and
modern worlds. When Alif meets the aristocratic Intisar, he believes
he has found love. But their relationship has no future - Intisar is
promised to another man and her family's honour must be satisfied. As
a remembrance, Intisar sends the heartbroken Alif a mysterious book.
Entitled The Thousand and One Days, Alif discovers that this parting
gift is a door to another world - a world from a very different time,
when old magic was in the ascendant and the djinn walked amongst us.
With the book in his hands, Alif finds himself drawing attention
- far too much attention - from both men and djinn. Thus begins an
adventure that takes him through the crumbling streets of a
once-beautiful city, to uncover the long-forgotten mysteries of the
Unseen. Alif is about to become a fugitive in both the corporeal and
incorporeal worlds. And he is about to unleash a destructive power
that will change everything and everyone - starting with Alif himself.
'[Wilson] works magic... an exuberant fable that has thrills,
chills and-even more remarkably-universal appeal.' Janet Maslin, The
New York Times
G. Willow Wilson was born in New Jersey in 1982. After
graduating with a degree in History and coursework in Arabic language
and literature, she moved to Cairo, where she became a contributor to
the Egyptian opposition weekly Cairo Magazine until it closed in 2005.
She has written for politics and culture blogs across the political
spectrum, and has previously written a graphic novel, Cairo,
illustrated by M. K. Perker, and a series of comics based on her own
experiences, for D. C. Comics.
