Wilson appears to have all of this in mind with “Alif the Unseen,” which aspires to operate on many levels, both visible and invisible, at the same time. Vikram’s right, of course, although it’s also the case that we use different stories for different reasons: to console or challenge us, to support our worldviews or uproot the status quo. Vikram’s response? “One could say that of all stories, younger brother.” They’re really secret knowledge disguised as stories,” the novel’s protagonist, a dissident hacker who calls himself Alif, says to an outsider named Vikram the Vampire, who may or may not be a djinn or genie. “So the stories aren’t just stories, is what you’re saying. It would be tempting to call this a reaction to the Arab Spring, except the book was completed in early 2011, just before the protests began in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.īut no matter, for this is Wilson’s point throughout the novel, that stories channel something deeper, that narrative is the DNA, or the computer code, by which we dream reality (or the future) into being. Willow Wilson’s first novel, “Alif the Unseen,” which takes place in an unnamed Middle Eastern emirate at a time very much like the present, as a repressive security state finds itself challenged by a flowering of freedom in its streets. What is the power of stories? That’s the question at the heart of G.
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