Book Review: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master, the husband who commissioned her, dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York in 1899.

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. Though he is no longer imprisoned, Ahmad is not entirely free – an unbreakable band of iron binds him to the physical world.

The Golem and the Jinni is their magical, unforgettable story; 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 threat will soon bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

I really liked this book.  Not only is the story so fascinating that you really don't want the book to end, but each character is so richly created with their own fascinating back story that you never get tired of them.  This writer really does her job well and helps you get hooked, and the characters are believable for their time period, and the lore and history is deeply saturated and fascinating as it interchanges and intertwines between the different cultures and religions in the early 1900s.

I listened to the audio book, which was narrated by George Guidal who did a fabulous job with the accents and the pronunciation.  I felt like this book may have even been one that was better as an audio book due to his skill and way of making each character come even more alive.  He also did a wonderful job of letting you know simply by accent and inflection which character it was focusing on, as it changes throughout the book and you hear different points of view.

Rating: ★★★★★