Wonderfully written, funny, entertaining, magical account of the author's struggle to restore a house and set up home in Morocco.
Tahir Shah was born into an Anglo-Afghan family, with roots in the
mountain stronghold of the Hindu Kush. Shah's ten books have
chronicled a series of fabulous journeys. He lives with his wife
and two children in Casablanca.
Visit his website- www.tahirshah.com
A wonderfully entertaining book - Tahir Shah's talent is to make
you laugh while you are admiring the insights given by his most
original and lively view of life.
*DORIS LESSING*
Funny, moving, fast-paced and thoughtful, it confirms Shah as one
of the best travel writers of his generation...a rich mosaic of a
book as intricate, complex and beautiful as the Arabian Nights
world it
describes
*JASON WEBSTER*
Reading about restoring houses overseas can be as tedious as
watching paint dry...yet I can't fault this joyful and resplendent
addition to the genre. Shah writes without artifice or
condescension, his language is fluent and direct. His characters
leap off the page...I couldn't put the book down.
*SUNDAY TIMES*
A book full of charm and humour, elevated by a consistent sense of
the beauty and mystery of everyday life. What also shines through
the narrative is the author's decency and respect for the people
and the cultures he encounters, the sort of qualities we like to
think of as fundamentally British ...a tribute to our potential for
understanding and learning to live with irreconcilable
differences
*GUARDIAN*
Shah...with good humour and wit...gives a vivid evocation of the
spirit of the place...The Caliph's House is charmingly escapist,
and combines the pleasures of good property porn with those of the
best travel writing
*DAILY TELEGRAPH*
Painted with a novelist's rather than a reporter's eye...His
descriptions are entertaining, his dialogue often hilarious.
*SUNDAY TELEGRAPH*
An extraordinary tale of exploratory daring, insatiable curiosity
and excruciating humour...written with tremendous verve, colour,
compassion and wisdom, it's a magical story...Don't miss this gem
of a book.
*GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE*
A year abroad, a house rebuilt, but with a difference. Extremely
odd characters and the narrative drive of a good novel. Very
funny.
*JOHN MAN, author of Genghis Khan*
Endlessly fascinating...Shah's own heritage as both Afghan and
Briton blesses him with a unique and penetrating point of view
*BOOKLIST*
Elegantly woven. The dominant colours are luminous...sheer
delight
*PUBLISHERS WEEKLY*
When Shah, his pregnant wife and their small daughter move from England to Morocco, where he'd vacationed as a child, he enters a realm of "invisible spirits and their parallel world." Shah buys the Caliph's House, once a palatial compound, now heavy with algae, cobwebs and termites. Unoccupied for a decade, the place harbors a willful jinni (invisible spirit), who Shah, the rational Westerner, reluctantly grasps must be exorcised by traditional means. As Shah remodels the haunted house, he encounters a cast of entertaining, sometimes bizarre characters. Three retainers, whose lives are governed by the jinni, have attached themselves to the property. Confounding craftsmen plague but eventually beautify the house. Intriguing servants come and go, notably Zohra, whose imaginary friend, a 100-foot tall jinni, lives on her shoulder. A "gangster neighbor and his trophy wife" conspire to acquire the Caliph's House, and a countess remembers Shah's grandfather and his secrets. Passers-through offer eccentricity (Kenny, visiting 15 cities on five continents where Casablanca is playing; Pete, a convert to Islam, seeking "a world without America"). There is a thin, dark post-9/11 thread in Shah's elegantly woven tale. The dominant colors, however, are luminous. "[L]ife not filled with severe learning curves was no life at all," Shah observes. Trailing Shah through his is sheer delight. Illus. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
A wonderfully entertaining book - Tahir Shah's talent is to make
you laugh while you are admiring the insights given by his most
original and lively view of life. -- DORIS LESSING
Funny, moving, fast-paced and thoughtful, it confirms Shah as
one of the best travel writers of his generation...a rich mosaic of
a book as intricate, complex and beautiful as the Arabian Nights
world it
describes
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