The Golem and the Jinni
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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George Guidall
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By:
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Helene Wecker
About this listen
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 PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Tamara Marston
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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A tale of the distant future by the author of The Shape-Changer's Wife brings listeners to a world in which the fate of all life rests on the voice of an angel.
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An All-TIme Favorite
- By Carol on 02-27-11
By: Sharon Shinn
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The Cerulean
- By: Amy Ewing
- Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Sera Lighthaven has always felt as if she didn’t quite belong among her people, the Cerulean, who live in the city above the sky. She is curious about everything - especially the planet her city is magically tethered to - and can’t stop questioning things. Sera has always longed for the day when the tether will finally break and the Cerulean can move to a new planet. But when Sera is chosen as the sacrifice to break the tether, she feels betrayed by everything in which she’d been taught to trust. In order to save her city, Sera must end her own life.
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It was ok
- By Kim on 12-16-20
By: Amy Ewing
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The Fire Rose
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Kate Black-Regan
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Accepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children and only wants her to read to him through a speaking tube.
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Great story, poorly presented
- By Che on 02-26-10
By: Mercedes Lackey
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The Distant Hours
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.
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Right Mood At The Right Time
- By Simone on 11-13-12
By: Kate Morton
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The Voice
- An Ephemera Novella
- By: Anne Bishop
- Narrated by: Cassandra Morris
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In a small village outside the city of Vision, the people know no sorrow or grief. But this seemingly idyllic community is hiding a terrible secret. As a young child, Nalah did not know why she was told to bring a cake to the mute girl known as the Voice whenever she was upset, only that doing so made her feel better. Now grown, Nalah understands the dark truth, and yearns to escape from the oppressive village that has been her life-long home.
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Doesn't hold up
- By Linda on 05-22-13
By: Anne Bishop
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Steeplejack
- By: A. J. Hartley
- Narrated by: Noma Dumezweni
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Anglet Sutonga lives repairing the chimneys, towers, and spires of the city of Bar-Selehm. Dramatically different communities live and work alongside each other. The white Feldish command the nation's higher echelons of society. The native Mahweni are divided between city life and the savannah. And then there's Ang, part of the Lani community who immigrated over generations ago as servants and now mostly live in poverty on Bar-Selehm's edges.
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Steeplejack Audio Climbs the Tops of Storytelling
- By Kerra Bolton on 12-08-16
By: A. J. Hartley
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The Alchemy of Stone
- By: Ekaterina Sedia
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart - literally.
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Steam Punk with a fizzle
- By Janice Budd on 12-29-11
By: Ekaterina Sedia
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House of Furies
- By: Madeleine Roux
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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After escaping a harsh school where punishment was the lesson of the day, 17-year-old Louisa Ditton is thrilled to find employment as a maid at a boardinghouse. But soon after her arrival at Coldthistle House, Louisa begins to realize that the house's mysterious owner, Mr. Morningside, is providing much more than lodging for his guests. Far from a place of rest, the house is a place of judgment, and Mr. Morningside and his unusual staff are meant to execute their own justice on those who are past being saved.
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One of the characters is Satan..lots of the occult
- By Angela Briggs on 07-25-19
By: Madeleine Roux
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Tess of the Road
- By: Rachel Hartman
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons can be whomever they choose. Tess is none of these things. Tess is...different. She speaks out of turn, has wild ideas, and can't seem to keep out of trouble. Then Tess goes too far. Tess's family decide the only path for her is a nunnery. But on the day she is to join the nuns, Tess chooses a different path for herself. She cuts her hair, pulls on her boots, and sets out on a journey. She's not running away, she's running towards something.
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Beautiful and Boring, Both.
- By Ryan on 04-05-19
By: Rachel Hartman
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The Winter Guest
- By: Pam Jenoff
- Narrated by: Emily Bauer
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is a constant struggle for the 18-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbor against neighbor. Though rugged, independent Helena and pretty, gentle Ruth couldn't be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats the war brings closer to their doorstep with each passing day.
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I liked it, but I doubt of I'd every buy it.
- By Star Trek it's not on 05-18-20
By: Pam Jenoff
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We Set the Dark on Fire
- By: Tehlor Kay Mejia
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husband’s household or raise his children. Both paths promise a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class. Daniela Vargas is the school’s top student, but her pedigree is a lie. She must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society. And school couldn’t prepare her for the difficult choices she must make after graduation.
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Undeveloped story and characters and setting
- By Hsin Yao Chou on 11-08-20
By: Tehlor Kay Mejia
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Ember Island
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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A compelling tale of two women separated by a century who discover long-buried secrets in an Australian manor house. In 1891, Tilly Kirkland is reeling with shock and guilt after her tempestuous marriage ends in horrific circumstances. Fleeing to the farthest place she knows, Tilly takes a job on Ember Island in Moreton Bay, Australia, where she becomes the governess to the prison superintendent's precocious young daughter, Nell.
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Not her best book
- By Beth on 05-02-18
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One of my favorite authors. Only 1 small complaint
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Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill—but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid. But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her.
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Dark magic masterpiece
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What listeners say about The Golem and the Jinni
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jefferson
- 07-23-13
Fine Romantic Urban Historical Immigrant Fantasy
Helene Wecker's fine first novel The Golem and the Jinni (2013) opens with the separate unintentional immigrations to NYC in 1899 of a masterless female golem from Poland and a bound male jinni from the Syrian desert. Wecker recounts with fascinating detail the attempts of the two supernatural beings to pass as human in their new Jewish (golem) and Syrian (jinni) Manhattan immigrant communities. The golem has awakened to life on the ship over to America, so she is only a few days old, but the jinni has been imprisoned in a flask for a thousand years, and in addition to the 1899 plot strand, Wecker reveals little by little the jinni's past and how he came to be bound in human form and by whom. While sharing some traits (superhuman strength and agility, fluency in any human language, and the inability to sleep or digest food), the golem and the jinni also have different abilities and personalities. Because the golem's master dies en route to NYC, her innate need to satisfy a master renders her ultra-sensitive to the desires and fears of every person in her proximity. The jinni, essentially a creature of air and fire, chafes at being trapped in human form but excels at doing metal work and lighting cigarettes with his bare hands. The golem is more cautious, prudish, conservative, and empathetic, the jinii more irresponsible, liberated, creative, and selfish. One of the pleasures of the novel is watching the personalities of the two protagonists develop as their plot strands weave ever closer together.
I enjoyed the fresh perspectives of the jinni and the golem about such things as the puzzling human belief in irrational religions and inconvenient social codes, the mystifying construction of large decorative marble arches that lead to or from nowhere, the magical transformations into bread and cake of dough when baked, the dark fascination of aquariums, the claustrophobic nature of commuter trains, the perfection of chicken eggs, and so on.
I cared for the characters, from the two protagonists (so human despite their supernatural differences and belief in their own inhumanity) down to the supporting players like the kind and moral Rabbi Meyer and his honest and naïve nephew Michael Levy, the circumspect tinsmith Boutros Arbeely, the quiet boy Matthew, the tragic ice cream vendor Saleh, the bored and daydreamy heiress Sophia Winston, the heart-of-her-community coffeehouse mistress Maryam Faddoul, the bickering bakery owning Radzins, and even, at times, oddly enough, the abhorrent wizard villain. I enjoyed spending time with them.
I was also impressed by Wecker's evocation of sublime, filthy, and vigorous 1899 NYC, its different districts devoted to the detached wealthy, the squalid poor, and various immigrant groups; it's expansive parks and noisy elevated trains and sordid rooftop demimonde.
The novel also has plenty of good writing, many funny, moving, suspenseful, ironic, or beautiful passages. As when the jinni "comfort[s] himself with the thought that although he might be forced to live like a human, he'd never truly be one," speculates that "perhaps this God of the humans is just a jinni like myself, stuck in the heavens, forced to grant wishes," and rides the Elevated train between two cars: "The noise was deafening, a rattle and screech that penetrated his entire body. Sparks from the track leapt past, blown by a violent wind. Lamp-lit windows flashed by in bright, elongated squares. At Fifty-ninth street he jumped out from between the cars, still shaking."
Other choice passages are the detailed description of the jinni's mesmerizing tin ceiling map-picture of his home desert, down to "a miniscule boar, stout and barrel-chested, the last of the sun glinting off tin-plated tusks," and the moment when the golem sees the jinni for the first time: "His face--and his hands as well, she saw now--shone with that warm light, like a lamp shaded with gauze. She watched him come nearer, unable to take her eyes away."
And the novel is often very funny, as when Radzin and his wife talk about a boy who compulsively counted everything until he died young:
"But he died, the year before we left. A mule kicked him in the head. " She paused, and then said, "I always wondered if he provoked it deliberately."
Radzin snorted. "Suicide by mule."
"Everyone knew that animal had a temper."
Upon reflection, I suppose that the climax of the novel, though suspenseful and satisfying, is a little too iffy and cinematic, but the book pulses with human life, wisdom, stories, and interesting themes, like the balance between autonomy and servitude in our souls and lives, the nature of love, the quality of community, and the vigorous attraction of the modern city.
This is the first book that I have heard Robert Guidall read, and I quickly became enamored of his savory and compassionate voice. In fact, I suspect that his intelligent, restrained, and sensitive reading of the novel (from his quiet golem to his flighty jinni) increased or enhanced my appreciation of it. I will listen to more books read by him.
Fans of romantic historical urban fantasy (if it is a genre) would probably enjoy this book.
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- Robert
- 08-09-14
I loved the story, the writing and the narration.
This is probably the most enjoyable book I have read/listened to all year and the year is 2/3 complete. For those among us who gravitate to fantasy, this is certainly that. For those looking for something quite unique this is that also. For those among the hopeless romantics, you have come home. I loved everything about this book: the story, its depth and its ending. And narrated by George Guidall; what more could one ask for?
The nature of my world these days has caused me to cut back on the number of reviews that I am able to write. But I just have to share what I find to be the truly wonderful books I come across and this is one of them.
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- Jodinofasgard
- 04-22-14
Loved it
Would you listen to The Golem and the Jinni again? Why?
Yep, I absolutely will. It is like a Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell set in early 20th century New York City.
What did you like best about this story?
I liked just about everything in the story. The narration is terrific, the story was engrossing, suspenseful but not manipulative. I found it a very satisfying listen all around, really well done.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Absolutely but not possible given the length. But I did want to savor it a bit, not rush through.
Any additional comments?
One of my top 10 books of the last year for sure -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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- Heather
- 08-09-13
Best Book I've Read/Listened To This Year
What did you love best about The Golem and the Jinni?
It was original and very well written. A story that draws you in and keeps you until the very last page- wishing it wouldn't end. I love books like that- it doesn't happen often enough!
What did you like best about this story?
I kept wondering how the author came up with the idea for this story - it's so unique. She does a good job of keeping you guessing. Also of making you really care about the characters and what happens to them. It's a fantastical story, obviously, but done in a way so that it never seems silly or too far-fetched.
Have you listened to any of George Guidall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I haven't heard any other George Guidall's performances, but he was fantastic! Very distinct voices for each character that fit them very well- even with accents and female voices. There was never any confusion about who was speaking, which can happen if the performer is not very good.
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- BellaJack
- 02-06-16
Unexpectedly Unique
The story was unexpectedly unique. It kept me interested and listening in just two installments. I love George Guidall as a narrator in everything I've listened to so far. He brings all the characters to life (hehe). If I had one complaint it would be his voice for Chava. This could have been intentional though. Without giving anything away in the story, he portrayed her voice as somewhat monotone. Anyway, I would definitely consider reading another book by Helene Wecker if she continues producing such unique stories. And, I will definitely continue seeking out narrations by George Guidall.
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- Helen The Dog Lady
- 04-07-15
Pleasantly diverting adult fairy tale
I liked this much more than in thought I was going to... Well worth a credit
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- Harold Summer
- 07-12-13
Superb narration of an original plot.
This novel easily ranks among the top 5% of audio books. George Guidall is undeniably the best male narrator. He savors words and breaths life into phrases. His timing and rhythm is impeccable. (I buy some audio books just to hear Guidall's wonderful voice.)
But, the story and plot is equally entrancing. It is an original novel, with unique characters, colorful history, and interesting introduction to Jewish mysticism and Bedouin myths. The characters are believable and develop well throughout the story. Do pay attention to the little details. They matter.
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- Robert
- 03-17-15
Fantastic Listen
Compelling story, excellent performance, captivating experience. if you enjoyed American Gods, this is a must listen.
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- Cynthia Dwyer
- 03-18-15
Pure, unadulterated magic
A delightful story. I love this book. I could listen to the narrator forever. A real prize of a book.
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- Sue B
- 12-05-16
19th C NYC Streetscape
Would you try another book from Helene Wecker and/or George Guidall?
Yes
Would you be willing to try another book from Helene Wecker? Why or why not?
I think so, though this was a little plodding, the story was inventive and the descriptions were vivid.
What aspect of George Guidall’s performance would you have changed?
I am not sure whether it was the slow pace of the story development or his style but the experience of listening was slow and laborious.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Absolutely.
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