Book description
'Could you show me a djinn?' I asked. 'Certainly,' replied the Sufi.
'But you would run away.'
From the author of 'The Return of a King', this is William Dalrymple's
captivating memoir of a year spent in Delhi, a city watched over and
protected by the mischievous invisible djinns. Lodging with the
beady-eyed Mrs Puri and encountering an extraordinary array of
characters - from elusive eunuchs to the last remnants of the Raj -
William Dalrymple comes to know the bewildering city intimately.
He pursues Delhi's interlacing layers of history along narrow alleys
and broad boulevards, brilliantly conveying its intoxicating mix of
mysticism and mayhem.
'City of Djinns' is an astonishing and sensitive portrait of a city,
and confirms William Dalrymple as one of the most compelling explorers
of India's past and present. 'Delightful … Surely one of the funniest
books about India' Times Literary Supplement
'Scholarly and marvellously entertaining … a considerable feat' Dervla
Murphy, Spectator
'Dalrymple has pulled it off again' Jan Morris, Independent William
Dalrymple's first book, 'In Xanadu', won the Yorkshire Post Best First
Work Award. His second, 'City of Djinns', won the Thomas Cook Travel
Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award.
His third, 'From the Holy Mountain', was awarded the Scottish Arts
Council Autumn Book Award and shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and
the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. He has also published a collection of
his pieces about India, 'The Age of Kali', and three history books:
'White Mughals', which won the Wolfson Prize, 'The Last Mughal', which
won the Duff Cooper Prize, and 'Nine Lives', which won the Asia House
Literary Award.
