The Bird King [Paperback]

From award-winning author G. Willow Wilson,The Bird Kingis an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.

G. Willow Wilsons debut novelAlif the Unseenwas an NPR andWashington PostBest Book of the Year, and it established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she deliversThe Bird King, a stunning new novel that tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. Hassan has a secrethe can draw maps of places hes never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultans surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassans gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety,The Bird Kingasks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.

Praise forThe Bird King

I loved this book so much . . .The Bird Kingis ostensibly the story of a journey, of the limits to escapebut it is also a journey into story, and faith, and refuge, the family we choose and the friends we find. Its deeply beautiful and wondrously sad, and I can't tell if it ended too quickly or if I just needed it not toif I just wanted to dwell in a home built out of story for a little longer yet.NPR

I truly cannot remember the last time I read a book that made me feel the wayThe Bird Kingmade me feel . . . No summary, no quotes, no analysis of this book can communicate the all-encompassing pleasure of reading it, paragraph after paragraph, page lI