2024/053: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years — Shubnum Khan

2024/053: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years — Shubnum Khan

The girl is interfering too much; she is upsetting the house; it can no longer hold on to its secrets the way it used to. More and more of the past is slipping through its fingers, and the house begins to break down further; pipes start to leak, cracks open in the walls, mold spreads, and the cold becomes unbearable. History is beginning to emerge, and the more the house fails to hide it, the more the djinn’s own terror grows. [p. 153]

Sana is fifteen, introverted and motherless: she is still dealing with her mother's death, and her belief that her mother never loved her at all. Her father Bilal decides that they'll move to Durban, a city in South Africa with a large Indian population. There, they rent rooms in Akbar Manzil, a mansion that's been shoddily converted into individual flats. The other inhabitants of the house -- glamorous former pianist Zuleikha, timid Fancy and her garrulous parrot Mr Patel, bitter Razia Bibi, the maid Pinky, the likeable owner Doctor -- are suitably eccentric. But the house itself is also a character,( Read more... )