I struggled to rate this book. I did enjoy it, but my enjoyment sprang primarily from the quality and style of the writing, rather than its content. 
 Minister Faust has a gift for character voices. Each narrator was distinct within a line or two. That's a gift that I respect. And the writing! So many poetic turns of phrase, and so very many quotable things! I want to praise this book all over the internet! 
 ...but I can't. 
 As beautiful and as captivating as Minister Faust's command of language is, his command of the plot is distinctly lacking. and that's a problem. 
 The first couple hundred pages were actually quite interesting. But as I read further, I fojnd myself caring less and less. At the end of the book, I don't feel like there was any major take-home message. I don't think the characters were as fully developed as they could have been. I just... mostly, I suppose that I'm disappointed. 
 And I'm disappointed because I really wanted to like it. In a lot of ways I do like it. (view spoiler)[There are several scenes that I loved, but particularly Hamza's wudu at the end of the book. (hide spoiler)] But it's not enough. 
 I don't know. Perhaps there's something here that my eyes can't see. But at over 500 pages, I'm unlikely to reread later.