G. Willow Wilson
Modeled on the 12th century poem, The Conference of the Birds by the Persian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson transports us to the reign of the last sultanate in 1491 just as Grenada is about to fall to Spain. It tells the story of Fatima, a Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker.
The novel starts off strongly with Fatima as a precocious, daring young woman who leads a sheltered life at the palace. She takes risks each time she visits Hassan, putting both their lives in danger. But since it is a well-kept secret in the palace that Hassan is a homosexual, the few people who know about these illicit visits are not concerned. Fatima is aided in her ability to sneak undetected through the palace because of Hassan’s extraordinary gift. He is not only able to make maps of places he has visited; he is also able to draw maps that generate alternative physical structures. He draws tunnels and secret locations that materialize and enable Fatima to visit him without being detected.
When the sultan is forced to surrender to the Spanish forces, he agrees to hand Hassan over to the Inquisition who view him as a sorcerer. Fatima discovers this and she and Hassan escape with the help of the Sultan’s mother and a shape-shifting jinn named Vikram. So far, so good. But then the story loses focus.
What follows in the remaining two-thirds of the novel is a helter-skelter chase where Fatima and Hassan are captured by the forces of the Spanish Inquisition, escape, are captured again, escape, and so on, and so on. They encounter mythical creatures and monsters along the way, witness killings and torture from the Spanish Inquisitors, and experience harrowing escapes. Hassan draws a map to lead the fleeing escapees to Qaf, the mythical land in Farid Ud-Din Attar’s poem, where they hope to find the Bird King.
Unfortunately, this section of the novel drags, is difficult to follow, and tries to do too much. The numerous captures and harrowing escapes become tedious. Confusion abounds. The adventure to find the Bird King gets tangled up in various love interest threads. Jinn appear at pivotal moments to rescue Fatima from near death. So much happens in so many different directions and with so many re-starts that it was difficult to keep track.
The novel promotes a message of tolerance and a celebration of diversity. It illustrates the concept that the manifestations and practices of different faiths should not cause strife among adherents because, ultimately, all faith is rooted in the same belief system. What is needed is tolerance of and respect for others regardless of their particular faith or how they choose to practice it since all faiths are ethnic inflections of a shared origin. It is a pity that such a valuable message got diluted by so many distractions, a seemingly random storyline, and an increasingly and unnecessarily convoluted plot.
Recommended with reservations.