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Summary
Summary
"Richly nuanced and beautiful. . . . An immersive and magical tale of loneliness, love, and finding hope." (Buzzfeed)
"A layered novel of many complex characters...To keep their worlds safe, Chava and Ahmad must access both their greatest supernatural powers and their deepest human impulses." (Historical Novels Review)
In this enthralling historical epic, set in New York City and the Middle East in the years leading to World War I-- the long-awaited follow-up to the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Golem and the Jinni--Helene Wecker revisits her beloved characters Chava and Ahmad as they confront unexpected new challenges in a rapidly changing human world.
Chava is a golem, a woman made of clay, who can hear the thoughts and longings of those around her and feels compelled by her nature to help them. Ahmad is a jinni, a restless creature of fire, once free to roam the desert but now imprisoned in the shape of a man. Fearing they'll be exposed as monsters, these magical beings hide their true selves and try to pass as human--just two more immigrants in the bustling world of 1900s Manhattan. Brought together under calamitous circumstances, their lives are now entwined--but they're not yet certain of what they mean to each other.
Both Chava and Ahmad have changed the lives of the people around them. Park Avenue heiress Sophia Winston, whose brief encounter with Ahmad left her with a strange illness that makes her shiver with cold, travels to the Middle East to seek a cure. There she meets Dima, a tempestuous female jinni who's been banished from her tribe. Back in New York, in a tenement on the Lower East Side, a little girl named Kreindel helps her rabbi father build a golem they name Yossele--not knowing that she's about to be sent to an orphanage uptown, where the hulking Yossele will become her only friend and protector.
Spanning the tumultuous years from the turn of the twentieth century to the beginning of World War I, The Hidden Palace follows these lives and others as they collide and interleave. Can Chava and Ahmad find their places in the human world while remaining true to each other Or will their opposing natures and desires eventually tear them apart--especially once they encounter, thrillingly, other beings like themselves
Author Notes
Helene Wecker received a BA in English from Carleton College and an MFA from Columbia University. Her first novel, The Golem and the Jinni, was published in 2013.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wecker delivers a satisfying, mature sequel to The Golem and the Jinni, continuing the magical story of two immigrant mythological characters from the turn of the 20th century to the outbreak of WWI. Golem Chava Levy and jinni Ahmad al-Hadid renew their friendship in 1900 upon Ahmad's return to New York City. Soon, their nighttime walks lead to romance. Meanwhile, heiress Sophia Winston travels incognito to the Middle East seeking a cure to her chills, a remnant of her own brief romance with Ahmad. Toby, the young son of Chava's former co-worker Anna Blumberg, was only present in utero during the climactic events of the first book, and now has questions about Anna's past. For Chava and Ahmad, their opposite natures both attract and repel, dooming the relationship. Chava then enrolls at Teachers College, and Ahmad throws himself into his work as a metalsmith, holing up in a downtown building to create a mysterious masterpiece. New characters, including another golem and a young female jinniyeh, and historical touchstones such as the sinking of the Titanic, drive the plot. Whereas the first installment was a propulsive battle of good versus evil, this delightful entry is more serialized storytelling à la Dickens. Throughout, Wecker pulls off an impressive juggling act with the many characters, all of whom are well positioned for another sequel. (June)
Kirkus Review
Wecker returns, eight years after The Golem and the Jinni, with a sequel that brings the saga into the 20th century. In a blend of romance, Mary Shelley--esque horror, and folklore, Wecker recounts the continuing adventures of Chava, the Jewish golem, and Ahmad, the Arabian jinni. Bound to each other by love, they have nonetheless parted long enough for Ahmad to have had a brief affair with a human. "I wasn't careful enough. I made her ill, permanently. I'm not certain how it happened, I only know that I was the cause," he confesses to Chava. And now, Sophia Winston, known as Saffiyah among the Bedouins she visits--"Saffiyah the stranger, Saffiyah the afflicted"--has a big problem: Having been touched by the jinni, the spirit of pure fire, she can't get warm, even in the blast furnace of the desert, where, among other historical characters, she runs into a certain Thomas E. Lawrence--soon to be known as Lawrence of Arabia--and Gertrude Bell. Meanwhile, back in New York, Chava, now known as Chava Levy, and Ahmad find each other again, performing miraculous labors, she as a champion baker who, of course, doesn't need to sleep and he as an "iron-bound" figure in human form who works diligently, in self-imposed exile, for a Syrian immigrant tinsmith. Not far away, a rabbi happens upon a secret book that contains the recipe for making a golem--a project fraught with peril but one that turns out to be helpful to his daughter, Kreindel, after bad fortune lands her in an orphanage. Kreindel is the most resourceful of the characters Wecker sets into motion in this tale, and she knows a golem when she sees one, including the one who teaches her home ec. Wecker skillfully combines the storylines of these and numerous other players, good and evil, in a story that, while self-contained, gives every promise of being continued. An enchanting tale that, though demanding lots of suspended disbelief, pleases on every page. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Wecker revisits the two mythological heroes from her debut, The Golem and the Jinni (2013), set in New York City at the dawn of the twentieth century. Chava, a Polish golem made of clay, and Ahmed, a Syrian jinni made of fire, have built lives for themselves, and they are still together and committed to each other, though their different natures still clash. The humans in their orbit continue to struggle. Ahmed's one-time lover, heiress Sophia Winston, takes off for the Middle East, still scarred by her brief affair with him. Befriended by Chava, single mother Anna worries about the safety of her young son, Toby. An orphaned girl conceals the existence of another golem, while halfway across the world a jinni rejected by her people sets her sights on tracking down Ahmed. Spanning more than a decade and touching on major early-twentieth-century events, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the sinking of the Titanic, and the beginning of WWI, Wecker's second outing blends Jewish and Middle Eastern mythology within a vibrant historical setting.
Library Journal Review
Expanding on her multi-award-winning, Nebula-nominated debut, The Golem and the Jinni, Wecker continues the story of golem Chava and jinni Ahmad, who are passing as immigrant humans in early 1900s New York and remain uncertain of their feelings for each other. A genre blender billed as literary; with a 50,000-copy first printing.
