The Golem and the Jinni

A Novel

By: Helene Wecker

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, 2014

Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.

Struggling to make their way in this strange new place, the Golem and the Jinni try to fit in with their neighbors while masking their true natures. Surrounding them is a community of immigrants: the coffeehouse owner Maryam Faddoul, a pillar of wisdom and support for her Syrian neighbors; the solitary ice cream maker Saleh, a damaged man cursed by tragedy; the kind and caring Rabbi Meyer and his beleaguered nephew, Michael, whose Sheltering House receives newly arrived Jewish men; the adventurous young socialite Sophia Winston; and the enigmatic Joseph Schall, a dangerous man driven by ferocious ambition and esoteric wisdom.

Meeting by chance, the two creatures become unlikely friends whose tenuous attachment challenges their opposing natures, until the night a terrifying incident drives them back into their separate worlds. But a powerful menace will soon bring the Golem and the Jinni together again, threatening their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

Marvelous and compulsively listenable, The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of folk mythology, historical fiction, and magical fable into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.

©2013 Helene Wecker (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers

Great story and storytelling

I loved listening to the narrator and hope to find more books he's recorded. Have a beautiful voice, and did a beautiful job distinguishing between characters and infusing each voice with meaning unique to that character.

The story was very creative and detailed. I loved the combination of cultures and locales. Since a golem is just a machine, and the jinni is a creature a fire, at times they seemed too petty and too human, with the predictable unfaithful reckless man and the timid obedient woman. Getting past this stereotype, it's an imaginative and unpredictable story.

Love, love this story and presentation.

The story's twists and turns captivated until the last page. I will look forward to other books by this author.

Perfect

Wonderful story, characters, writing and narration. So happy I finally took a chance on this one! This book actually made me wish my commute were longer!

Mesmerizing mix of magic and mundane

Do you believe in magic? Wecker’s ability to weave the threads of this tapestry through hundreds of years and Guidall’s beautiful narration casts a spell and brings the listener along for a magic carpet ride through the streets of turn of the century New York City with a cast of ordinary, hard-working characters whose lives are forever impacted by magical beings from opposite ends of the spectrum. One ancient, one brand new. One fire, one clay. Even their cultures of origin are forever at war. A masterful, mysterious tale.

Great Story. More of a novel than a fantasy

Nice surprise. Great story, character, and a little bit of a romance. Nice touch of fantasy to sweeten the deal. Lots of fun and a bit of history. Loved it

A very slow story

This book kept my attention till the end however the pace was very slow. Too much time was given to lesser characters and by the time the book gets to weaving the two main characters together the book is over. The fist half of this book needed to be rewritten to trim the fat and compress the setup more. All said and done the book was well written and the narrator did an exellent job with the accents.

Works as an audiobook

I'm glad I close to listen rather than read the physical copy. While I enjoyed the story, I found it to be too slow paced in the middle. The narrator's performance and the ending raised this to a 4-star book.

Unique and fun. I enjoyed the listen.

this was a fun book to listen to. very different from the usual sci-fi and horror that I like. this was a good escape from reality. I definitely recommend!

Not what I expected but ended up loving it!

This was one of the daily deals and I took a chance. I was very, pleasantly surprised by the story! Without giving away anything, I hope that the author writes something similar. I'd love to know what happens to the characters, perhaps - say, 10 or 20 years from the ending!
I don't know much about the Jewish culture, but have learned a bit through the story that the author wrote. I find historical type novels very interesting and often educational - provided the author does the research and keeps things fairly accurate - which Helene Wecker did.
The narrator did an excellent job overall and was easy to listen to. He didn't resort to the "falsetto" that some male narrators give the female characters. I appreciate that!

I really enjoyed this book!

The story was well written and the performance was great. The story didn't waver throughout the whole book. It met my expectations.