Alif the Unseen
by G. Willow Wilson
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Pub Date Jul 10 2012 | Archive Date Nov 19 2012
McClelland & Stewart | Emblem Editions
Description
Please note that this e-galley is only available to Canadian NetGalley users.
Alif the Unseen will be published in the United States by Grove Press in July 2012.
A tour-de-force of a debut that blends classic fantasy -- the
fascinating, frightening, sometimes-invisible world of the djinn --
that's genies to some of us -- with the 21st-century reality of a
super-hacker in mortal danger in a repressive security state on the
Arabian Gulf.
Alif (that's his handle) is a brilliant young
superhacker working out of his mother's small apartment, and his
computer has just been breached. While Alif scrambles to protect his
clients -- dissidents and outlaws alike, whoever needs to hide their
digital traces, he and his friends realize that they've been found by
'the Hand' -- maybe a person, maybe a program, but definitely able to
find anyone, and that could lead to prison, or worse. Alif, with the
help of his childhood friend Dina, an ancient book sent to him in secret
by his lost love (who may be frighteningly connected to the Hand) and a
terrifying protector who almost looks human, must go underground
-- or rather, find a way into the hidden world of the djinn. They wrote
the mysterious book centuries ago, and have knowledge that might just
allow Alif to infiltrate the most sophisticated information technology
the world has ever seen, and perhaps save himself, his loved ones, and
freedom itself. With shades of Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, William
Gibson, and the timeless Thousand and One Nights, Alif the
Unseen is a tour-de-force debut with major potential -- a
masterful, addictive blend of the ancient and the more-than-modern,
smuggled inside an irresistible page-turner.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
G. WILLOW WILSON was born in New Jersey in 1982 and raised in Colorado.
She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Butterfly
Mosque and the comics Air and Vixen. She
divides her time between Cairo and Seattle.
Advance Praise
Advance praise for Alif the Unseen
“G.
Willow Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic, and the kind of smart,
honest writing mind that knits together and bridges cultures and people. You
should read what she writes.”
— Neil Gaiman, author of Stardust and
American Gods
“Driven by a hot ionic charge between higher
math and Arabian myth, G. Willow Wilson conjures up a tale of literary
enchantment, political change, and religious mystery.”
— Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
and Out of Oz
"[T]his
year’s improbably charming book about hackers is Alif the Unseen. . . . Spirited fun."
-- New York Times
“An ambitious, well-told, and wonderful
story. Alif the Unseen is one of those novels that has you rushing to
find what else the author has written, and eagerly anticipating what she'll do
next.”
— Matt Ruff, author of Fool on the Hill and The Mirage
“A Golden
Compass for the Arab Spring.”
— Steven Hall, author of The Raw
Shark Texts
“One of the most compelling narratives you'll
read this year, Alif offers masterful insight into contemporary Middle
Eastern societies whose ongoing transformations are as unexpected and profound
as those in our own. It is also a powerful reminder of how far fantasy has come
since Tolkien.”
— Jack Womack, author of Random Acts of Senseless
Violence
“Willow
Wilson is an awesome talent. She made her own genre and rules over
it. Magical, cinematic, pure storytelling. It's nothing like anything. A
brilliant fiction debut.”
— Michael Muhammad Knight, author of The
Taqwacores
“Alif
the Unseen is a terrific metaphysical thriller, impossible to put down. The
fantastical world Alif inhabits—at once recognizable and surreal,
visible and invisible—is all the more fantastic for the meticulously detailed
Koranic theology and Islamic mythology Wilson expertly reveals. A multicultural
Harry Potter for the digital age.”
— Hooman Majd, author of The
Ayatollahs’ Democracy and The Ayatollah Begs to Differ
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780771089084 |
| PRICE | CA$22.99 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 448 |
