I knew this book was on the bestseller list when I started, but having just read The Goldfinch (also a current bestseller) and not finding it to be quite what people were talking it up to be, I may have gone in with different expectations than normal. But what I came out with is one of my favorite books of all time! This was amazing. The combination of two huge cultures and their historical mysticisms of the golem and the jinn was an amazing feat, along with the more personal combination of the golem's obedience with the jinni's need for freedom. The breadth of the story and what it covered both across time and between characters was beautiful. The relationship cultivated between Chava and Ahmed is just perfect in it's imperfections and developed with the exact right pacing. The writing itself was also gorgeous and I felt as if the story was painted in front of me, a map of the story, like the jinni's tin ceiling. And the smaller stories, the little parts each character played: Saleh the ice cream man, Matthew, the Rabbi and his nephew Michael, Maryam, Fadwa and Sophia wove together with lovely precision and played their parts at the perfect times. And finally, one must mention the ibn Malik/Yehuda Schaalman character. What a creative idea for a "bad guy," the way that he was the same soul, that he would live as the jinni lived, and his part in both the jinni's and the golem's lives. And his end. I couldn't imagine a better finish. I truly do not have words to describe the literary caliber of this book and how it held my interest so beautifully. Masterful.