Ten Years of The Golem and the Jinni

Ten years ago this week, my debut novel The Golem and the Jinni was released into the world.

I’d worked on it for seven years by then. To me, it had long since become the book. As in, This year I have to finish the book. Or, I need to find some time to work on the book. Or, I have got to figure out what's wrong with the book. I nearly abandoned it more than once, but my brain wouldn't let it go. I'd developed just enough of a writer's instinct to know that there was something worthwhile in that mess of an idea, and I had to discover what it was — and that meant discovering who Chava and Ahmad, our titular golem and jinni, were supposed to be. I had to capture Chava's curious and open-hearted nature, her quiet intelligence, her yearning for connection. And I had to realize Ahmad's essential longing for freedom, his unwillingness to be tamed.

The act of creating fictional characters will never not strike me as a bizarre way to make a living. I'm inventing people and getting paid for it. Seriously, what? At least my actual living children arrived with their own built-in personalities and free will. The made-up people in my head can’t do anything without my say-so. Multiply that out over seventeen years of working with the same characters, and maybe you develop a certain sense of obligation towards them. Partly this stems from the fact that I've always tried to treat Chava and Ahmad like real people, no matter how fantastical. I try to change them in the way that real people tend to change: slowly, believably, in response to outer forces and inner struggles. Maybe it’s a cliche to say that they feel like family — but at this point, how could they not? They've been in my head every single day for the better part of two decades.

The Golem and the Jinni reshaped my life so fundamentally that it's difficult to imagine who I'd be today without it. Over the years I’ve been honored to receive countless messages from readers who have been moved by Chava and Ahmad's story, both in The Golem and the Jinni and its sequel, The Hidden Palace. These days I'm hard at work on the third book, which, as I currently imagine it, is a tale of flawed parenthood and generational legacy, a sort of passing of the torch. After that — well, who knows? Not me, certainly. But no matter what I go on to do or write, Chava and Ahmad will remain a constant in my life. Some part of me will always see the world through their eyes.

Thank you, readers, for your continued support of Chava and Ahmad, and for following along with their journey. I can't wait to see where it takes us all next.