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

The Best Story and Narration Ever

I am retired and enjoy listening to an abundance of books on Audible. I must say there was not a moment I wasn't completely absorbed by this story.

If you were to try to describe the storyline, it would seem quite implausible but believe me, you will be mesmerized.

The narrator, George Guidall, is the most impressive reader I have yet to experience.

This is a masterpiece.

One of the best modern fairly tales

From beginning to end I was in love with the story, the characters and the setting. George Guidall excellently narrates this romantic tale of immigrants some how more foreign than many others who arrived in America. I really can't praise the tale enough and hope you will give it a listen.

Wonderful

Wonderful story and George Guidall is the best narrator!! I’ll definitely listen to this fine story again.

Did not want it to end

I really love this book. It was a creative piece of art. The plot was captivating and the characters were original and intriguing .

Excellent

Very interesting and enveloping listen. Great narration, interesting character development, and content that keeps you listening.

Beautifully crafted

I didn't quite know what to expect from this book when I bought it, but the premise interested me enough to try and keep on going, even though it was very slow to start. It seemed nothing really happened in the first 40% of the story, that is until the golem and the jinni finally met. However, the purpose of it all unvealed itself, as the intricate weaving of the plot finally unfolded in the last quarter of the book. In the end I'd come to really love these characters and the resolution of their story was as realistic as it could be, and satisfying.

I wanted to give the book four and a half stars it it had been possible, I even contemplated giving it five stars, but ended up giving it book four stars. To be fair, although I came to love the book when I was done with it, there were a few times when I contemplated not finishing it at all, not because it was boring, but because it was so slow and long I felt it took forever to get to the end. Yet somehow, these characters were so interesting in the simplicity of their nature, and the narrator's voice so smooth and calming, I felt I needed to give it a chance. I'm glad I did. It's a really good book! I just wish she would have given each viewpoint character their own chapter, because it could get confusing (in the audiobook format) to hop between them without much pause within chapters. However, Helen Wecker is definitely an author to follow. Her work was original and I predict she will write more great fiction in the future.

This story is mostly character driven, but there is still some plot in it too. It really was about putting an "adult newborn" and a "time traveller from ancient times" in the year 1899 and asked them to pretend to be normal despite them being anything but. Then we slowly watch how they try to do exactly that, how their opposite personalities influence their interactions (to each other and others) and influence the choices they make, how it shapes them, and then how it all plays out for them in the end.

If you like the type of story that is full of interesting atmosphere and unfolds itself slowly, such as the first Mistborn book by Brandon Sanderson or the Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (minus the magic systems), you will probably like this book too.

If you are looking for a hard magic system, high/epic/urban fantasy, a fast page-turner, a plot driven story, or even a typical romance story, you will not find it here.

You will however find an unpredictable, well woven story that is beautifully written and full of interesting culture, giving you a glimpse into Jewish and Syrian communities as they could have been in NYC a little over a century ago.

It's sort of historical fiction with fantastical elements, without it being a typical fantasy book. If you are into fantasy, but are tired of the old tropes and want something new and different, this is it. You definitely don't have to be into fantasy to like it though, because it's geared more towards mainstream readers, but it still pleases both types of readers, I think.

Great read, wonderful ending

Not your normal genie in the bottle type of book, but it is definitely better. The characters are well defined and the era where it takes place acurate. it was a pleasure to read... highly recommended.

Wonderful listen

This went on a bit long, but was always worth getting through. A very enjoyable performance!

An immigrant story about finding identity

This was not my usual genre, but I'm starting to branch away from my usual and take a chance on things. This is a story about a Golem, a Jinni, and how they both ended up as immigrants, separately, in America at the turn of the century, 1899. They end up meeting each other and their fates become intertwined.

This is an immigration story, not really a fairy tale. I honestly did not know what to expect from it. There was not a ton of action and the story was slow moving but I was still captivated by the characters and their experiences.

I heard that this book will have a sequel. The story does not have a cliff hanger, I felt it did "end" with loose ends ties up as best as they could, but I look forward to reading the sequel and see what happens next.

Unique and Refreshing

The Golem and the Jinni was an interesting book. It had something unique about it that I haven’t really read in other books. The tone seemed similar to The Night Circus with a bit of Frankenstein tossed in. I enjoyed seeing the different views of the two main characters, you have a Golem that is new to the world and a Jinni who has been around and locked up for thousands of years. I’m not quite sure what time period the book was supposed to take place in but it felt like the early 1900s.

One thing that was refreshing with this book was that most of the characters seemed to be pleasant people that generally cared about each other. There weren’t a whole lot of ulterior motives and hidden agendas. Of course there were one or two bad guys but everyone else seemed like a decent human being. I know some people like their hard core, everyone is bad Game of Thrones type characters but there’s too much of that now days and it’s nice to see someone write characters that are truly decent.

The book does start off a bit slow and I don’t think the main two characters really meant up until a third of the book. Even then a lot of the story is just seeing how these characters deal with the world not about their interactions with each other. Besides the two main characters we get to see the stories of multiple side characters and their point of views. Most of these were just as entertaining as the main characters. I really enjoyed the ice cream man’s story.

Overall this was a good book with refreshing characters. I enjoyed how it ended with a bit of sadness and a bit of happiness as well. This is a really good stand-alone story but I heard there’s also going to be a follow up book. I’m interested to see where the author takes the story of these characters.

I thought George Guidall was an excellent narrator. There were a lot of accents in this book which are sometimes hard for me to understand when listening but he did a great job making the voices clear well maintaining the tone of the story.