The Hidden Palace

Manhattan at the turn of the twentieth century: Chava the golem and Ahmad the jinni have spent years hiding what they are, passing as human in a city full of immigrants doing the same thing. The Hidden Palace expands their world in both directions, following characters from the first novel into new configurations and introducing Dima, a female jinni banished from her tribe, whose anger and power create dangerous new possibilities. Helene Wecker weaves multiple storylines across New York and the Middle East in the years approaching the First World War.

George Guidall brings his extraordinary range to a novel populated with a large and distinct ensemble, each requiring a different register. His performance gives the city's competing cultures their own rhythms, the East Side tenements sounding different from Park Avenue, and he handles the supernatural figures, the golem's steady patience, the jinni's restless fire, with the care these characters have earned across two novels. The audiobook's long runtime rewards listeners who give themselves to Wecker's measured unfolding.