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In an old wardrobe a djinn sits weeping. It whimpers and murmurs small words of complaint. It sucks its teeth and berates the heavens for its fate. It curses the day it ever entered this damned house.
Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate overlooking the sparkling ocean beyond South Africa's eastern coast. Now, its Palladian windows and marble parapets, its golden domes and Romanesque towers have fallen into disrepair.
Now, Akbar Manzil is where people come to forget, or to be forgotten.
Teenage Sana arrives with her father, Bilal, both of them hoping for a fresh start after the tragedies that have blighted their family. But when the ghost of Sana's sister alerts her to the presence of a djinn that lingers just out of reach in the shadowy corners of the house, Sana embarks on a quest to uncover the history of her unnerving new home. Soon, her own story intertwines with that of a young woman who lived there some eighty years earlier, a woman whose tragic fate holds the key to Akbar Manzil's ultimate secret.
Endlessly playful and richly imaginative, Shubnum Khan's vibrant debut explores the transportive powers of love and grief, bringing to life the unique history of South Africa's Indian diaspora.
About the author
Shubnum Khan is a South African author and artist. Her first novel, Onion Tears (Penguin South Africa, 2011) was shortlisted for the Penguin Prize for African Writing and the University of Johannesburg Debut Fiction Prize. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney's, HuffPost, Oprah Magazine, The Sunday Times, Marie Claire, and others. She has a degree in Media Studies and a Master's in English from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her essay collection, How I Accidentally Became a Stock Photo was published in South Africa and India by Pan Macmillan in 2021.
