Alif the Unseen

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. She has written for politics and culture blogs across the political spectrum, and has previously written a graphic novel,

Cairo, and a series of comics based on her own experiences living in Egypt during the Arab Spring.

Alif the Unseen is her first novel.



An exhilarating techno-thriller but also far more than that... Wilson has created in this rich, literate novel a profound dialogue between tradition and modernity, belief and non-belief, fairy tale and urban reality.



Brilliant... witty, imaginative and unorthodox in all senses



Among the most original and challenging books of 2012, and my personal pick for at least one major award in 2013.



Charming and original



Wilson writes beautifully, tells a great story, and even makes computer hackery seem like magic.



A Harry Potter-ish action-adventure romance [that] unfolds against the backdrop of the Arab Spring... Improbably charming... A bookload of wizardry and glee.



Marvelous... Intoxicating... Hugely entertaining... It doesn't take magical powers to predict it will be one of the year's best-loved books.