The Golem and the Jinni
core novel 2013 The Golem and the Jinni
Record
| First published | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.13 (133,832 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 486 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780062110848 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Golem and the Jinni is a historical fantasy set in 1899 New York City, following two displaced supernatural beings thrown unexpectedly into human society. Chava is a golem, a woman shaped from clay and animated through forbidden Kabbalistic magic by a disgraced rabbi in Poland; left masterless after his death during her voyage to America, she arrives in the city and is taken in by a sympathetic rabbi who teaches her to pass as an ordinary woman. Ahmad is a jinni of fire, accidentally freed from an old copper flask by a Syrian tinsmith after centuries of imprisonment, and finds himself trapped in human form and working as the tinsmith's apprentice while he searches for a way back to his true nature.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Golem and the Jinni
- Series: The Golem and the Jinni core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Helene Wecker
Awards (verified)
- Mythopoeic Award (Adult Literature), 2014: won
- James Tiptree Jr. Award (Honor list), 2013: finalist
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2014: finalist; 2nd place, no-cutoff convention.
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2014: nominated
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 2014: nominated
Notes
- From the series record (The Golem and the Jinni): Core Canon = the 2 published novels (Harper, 2013/2021). Book 3, The Gates of Midnight, is announced with a September 15, 2026 publication date but is unpublished as of 2026-08-11 -- isn't counted here yet; watch for its publication.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Golem and the Jinni: position 1 of 2: next The Hidden Palace (2021)
Sources
← The Golem and the Jinni dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.