(Alif is his screen name, and the first letter of the Arabic alphabet.) The son of an absent Arab father and a Hindu mother, Alif is an online mercenary who provides cover for various Web sites run by a “coterie of bloggers, pornographers, Islamists and activists from Palestine to Pakistan.” At the novel’s outset, he’s more Han Solo than hacktivist: “Alif was not an ideologue as far as he was concerned, anyone who could pay for his protection was entitled to it.” Alif, 23, lives in a modern, unnamed city in an unnamed emirate. Willow Wilson’s marvelous first novel, “ Alif the Unseen,” takes events similar to those of the Arab Spring, adds a runaway computer virus, an unconventional love story and the odd genie to create an intoxicating, politicized amalgam of science fiction and fantasy.Īn American-born journalist, Wilson is a convert to Islam who’s written eloquently about religion and politics in numerous publications and a memoir, “ The Butterfly Mosque.” She also penned the award-winning graphic novel “ Cairo” and the comic series “ Vixen.” These various literary enterprises dovetail in her new book, which also manages to get in a few amusing nods to “Star Wars” and uses Philip Pullman’s irreligious novel “ The Golden Compass” as the springboard for a heated, protracted discussion of the power of words to change the world.
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