Alif the Unseen

Alif the Unseen is an incredibly timely adventure tale worthy of Neil Gaiman. In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker protects watched groups from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble—until he falls for the wrong woman and unleashes a forbidden text thought to be written by the jinn (genies).As the book opens, Alif’s computer has been breached by the Hand, the state’s electronic security force, and the woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince. When it turns out the fiancé is the Hand, and the state security forces come after Alif, he must go underground, all while trying to fight back against a piece of code which the Hand is using to create the most sophisticated state surveillance ever developed. When Alif discovers the secret book of the jinn, which may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death.With shades of Neal Stephenson, Philip Pullman, and The Thousand and One Nights, Alif the Unseen is a tour de force that will enchant readers—a sophisticated blend of ideas, philosophy, technology and spirituality smuggled inside an irresistible page-turner.