LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013'I will tell you a story, but it comes with a warning; when you hear it, you will become someone else.'He calls himself Alif - few people know his real name - a young man born in a Middle Eastern city that straddles the ancient and modern worlds. When Alif meets the aristocratic Intisar, he believes he has found love. But their relationship has no future - Intisar is promised to another man and her family's honour must be satisfied. As a remembrance, Intisar sends the heartbroken Alif a mysterious book. Entitled The Thousand and One Days, Alif discovers that this parting gift is a door to another world - a world from a very different time, when old magic was in the ascendant and the djinn walked amongst us.With the book in his hands, Alif finds himself drawing attention - far too much attention - from both men and djinn. Thus begins an adventure that takes him through the crumbling streets of a once-beautiful city, to uncover the long-forgotten mysteries of the Unseen.Alif is about to become a fugitive in both the corporeal and incorporeal worlds. And he is about to unleash a destructive power that will change everything and everyone - starting with Alif himself.'[Wilson] works magic... an exuberant fable that has thrills, chills and-even more remarkably-universal appeal.' Janet Maslin, The New York Times

G. Willow Wilson was born in New Jersey in 1982. She has written for politics and culture blogs across the political spectrum, and has previously written a graphic novel, Cairo, and a series of comics based on her own experiences living in Egypt during the Arab Spring. Alif the Unseen is her first novel.