The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

The Bird King

by G. Willow Wilson

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

G. Willow Wilson's debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and it established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The 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 secret--he can draw maps of places he's never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan's surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan's 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 King asks 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.

Reviewed by layawaydragon on

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I won a copy through the raffle on Bookish First.

I liked the impression preview, but reading the novel was stop and go. I didn't make it far past the preview. I didn't once think about the story once I put the book down. I only felt dread and resistance when picking it back up. I can't even remember if it came with a map as I hoped.

Clearly, the problem was me.

The book hadn't changed but I couldn't stay focused and interested. Which really sucks frankly. Maybe I need to try her first book on my own. I'll try borrowing it from the library and see what happens.

Instead of holding on to my copy forever out of guilt and obligation, I passed it along to a kickass book blogger, who is desperate to read it and will review it far better than me anyways.


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