• Listen to the entire program

Special edition of Uprising hosted by Alan Minsky

In the new novel, Alif the Unseen, the complex, fictional debut thriller by author G. Willow Wilson, a computer hacker working to protect dissidents from the oppressive regime of an unnamed Middle Eastern nation is exposed, putting his life and the lives of many others at risk. The setting conjures images of the Arab Spring revolutions fueled by ever evolving technology, but the story takes a twist into the fanciful when reality collides with ancient spiritual myth and the supernatural. The title character, Alif, is a computer wiz, code-named for the first letter in the Arabic alphabet. Alif toils in secrecy to shield the identities of his fellow countrymen who dare to challenge the security state, lead by the fiancé of his love interest. When the regime discovers Alif’s identity he becomes a target and must go on the run. To save himself and the world he must race against time to find a mystical book, The Thousand and One Days, that contains secrets to reaching a new level of information technology that could prove disastrous should it fall into the wrong hands.

GUEST: G. Willow Wilson is the author of Alif the Unseen and the award winning author of the graphic novel Cairo and the comic project Mystic.

More about G. Willow Wilson can be found at her website, www.gwillowwilson.com