Point of View

The novella is narrated in third-person past with a close focus on the main character, Agent Hamed. Because of the novella’s perspective, everything that the reader knows is informed through Hamed’s mind and consciousness. This perspective works particularly well for a novella that rides the line between fantasy and mystery. The third-person narrator frequently steps in to provide detailed information about the fantastical setup of the novel, as we see when the narrator pauses the conversation between the agents and Bashir to inform the reader: “It had been some forty years since the wandering Soudanese genius—or madman, take your pick—had, through a mix of alchemy and machines, bored a hole into the Kaf. The opening of the doorway to the other-realm of the djinn had sent magic pouring out, changing the world forever” (13). This would be clunkier and less authentic in...