#46// djinns, mystery solving in italy

djinns in the city

Dear Reader,

As fate would have it, I had fallen into the deepest slump because of a long hold at the library on Book 3 in a fantasy trilogy. After an audio book binge of the hyped (deserving) The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black, I craved something that’ll totally suck me in. PS: If you are looking for an addictive read to tear through, I recommend this Folk of the Air series of court politics, fae, enemies that are at each other’s throats, and murder. (Be warned about romanticized abuse; the words ‘cruel’ ‘wicked’ should probably give you that idea). Over the time this letter stayed in my drafts, I finished Book 3 The Queen of Nothing and enjoyed it. I didn’t keep my fingers crossed for the main leads in spite of their steamy (also problematic) chemistry. I was low key hoping one will kill the other—Don’t tell the fans.

Read

So, as I was saying, slumps—especially ones after good books—make you restless and unsatisfied. But as luck would have it, this slump made me pick up a fantasy set in a Muslim family, the influential Khan Rahmans, in Bangladesh—Djinn City by Saad Z Hossain. Our hero (perhaps one of our heros?) is ten year old Indelbed who hails from a poorer wing of the Khan Rahman family, nourished by hand-me-downs from his richer cousins. He lives with his eccentric father Dr. Kaikobad, Butloo (butler) and cook in a dilapidated mansion. Indelbed isn’t sent to school. He is forbidden to talk about his dead mother (whose death certificate shows ‘death by Indelbed). Pretty much a regular life with joint family politics and a big house (and a family of secrets with some relatives being banished to a village because they went mad) until Kaikobad falls into a coma and the family has to decide what to do with Indelbed.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel are the hilarious family meetings. While everyone throws accusations, or police about how Indelbed should be sent to school, somebody would point out the ‘money’ needed and suddenly all problems seem to immediately dissolve. No one’s gonna be spending money, no thank you. Bossy aunties and uncles, and long advice sessions dedicated to finding faults—South Asians with big families will absolutely enjoy these humour-speckled sections.

So in the unfortunate turn of events of his father being in a coma, his mother’s identity in the open (she was a djinn), and the family undecided about what to do with an unschooled ten year old, Indelbed finds himself in a pit of carnivorous worms (how is a spoiler) with the banished djinn Givaras. Givaras is a chatterbox, researcher, and historian. The camaraderie between the naïve Indelbad and the wise Givaras was refreshing. Givaras enlightens Indelbed of the ways of the djinn world, the experiments he has been conducting in the pit, and his hypotheses. He rubbishes djinn legends and believes in science and evolution of djinns. Givaras is a jolly fellow, and years of confinement in the pit has made him more jovial. His humor comes in bursts, but also goes pitch dark when you least expect it.

Perhaps this scientific approach where matter and time and distortion fields (or what humans call magic) collide, is what makes Djinn City an unputdownable book. I found myself thinking about creation, legends, stories, purist mentality, and the mystery of it all. Hossain’s imagination is wild and unique, taking us from the depths of bottomless pits to the ocean floor to flying vehicles to djinn conventions to stolen history books. I loved being surprised by the imaginative turns. For example, dragons!! Now where did dragons come from in a story of humans and djinns?

So now that the Khan Rahman family has made peace (almost) with the fact that Indelbed is gone forever, his cousin Rais—described as a lazy guy who doesn’t finish anything he begins—decides to look for Indelbed. The story travels through multiple threads. The doctor in coma, the boy missing for years, a man determined to find his missing cousin, djinns divided in their ideology. Anything more would be a spoiler.

Hossain’s world of djinns is elaborate with rules, politics, history, war, and vows. There’s a lot of give and take, greed, skewed history, hunger for power, and cries of supremacy calling for the total annihilation of humankind. I loved the world building of the djinns—the fashion/clothes, the cribbing about how humans are behind in tech, the truth bombs about djinns who were the original inventors. There are references to actual famous humans—it almost makes you think it is the truth (who knows really?). I loved how complex and layered the story was. Also funny, dark and twisted.

The human-djinn collaborations were fun to read. Chosen humans function as emissaries or human ambassadors with the djinn world. Djinns can help you get rich, they might terrify you even though the rule book says djinns can’t interfere with humans. A promise or help needs to be paid for. A mishap like a skin whitening cream turning skin to orange can vanish if a human knows the right djinn to ask for help.

Story time: I am not being whiny (maybe I am), but I want to tell you a story. I had a physical copy of this book, but in a bad cover design (I am a little surprised at this because Aleph usually publishes books with amazing cover designs). The premise intrigued me but the cover totally put me off. Even when a friend who borrowed the book raved about it, and I decided I must read and see for myself, I wouldn’t pick it up. Simply because of the cover design. It stayed on the shelves for a long enough time to be donated. I know a good cover depends on the budget of the publisher and also the creative team, but when you can come up with stunning covers for mediocre books, you can definitely have a decent cover for a good book. Here’s a pic of the cover that I owned. Don’t let it/the other bad covers that google gives you discourage you from reading the book. I wish I had read this book sooner, but I am glad I did it finally.

Djinn City isn’t without faults. It was sad to see that none of the women characters were better crafted and the novel remains yet another story of men on a quest. Even aunt Juny, who could’ve been the wise lady with a mind of her own, merely makes a presence to move the story forward. Rais’s lover remains a one-dimensional character. Some words/usages/slurs seemed out of place (retard, mongoloid being examples) in an otherwise electrifying narrative. It was also very irritating to see unpleasant aunties being repeatedly called fat, almost as if it is the author making these remarks and not the characters. This quickly rectified itself (mostly because the women characters appear only to move the plot forward).

I wasn’t prepared for how the story abruptly changed direction. When I was fully invested in the helpless Indelbed and his misfortunes, Hossain moves the lens towards grown-up cousin Rais on a quest to find Indelbed. When we are knee-deep in the said quest, the lens points towards something else. And so on. A more balanced structure would’ve made the experience all the more pleasurable. Also that ending was too abrupt, as if a fascinating story exceeded its word count and simply had to end quickly. I really wanted to know more of Indelbed. But in spite of these awkward bumps in the outline, Djinn City was fantastical, darkly funny, and makes you say ‘ohh’ (in a good way) several times over the story. You’ll have to read and see how the stories of the helpless Indelbed, secretive Kaikobad, curious Rais, scientific Givaras and intolerant Matteras converge in this hugely imaginative fantastic novel.

In another world this would’ve been a trilogy with movie rights.

Watch

I’ve been absolutely enjoying the Italian mystery-thriller series The Law according to Lydia Poët. It is set in 1800’s Italy and features a disbarred young woman (Matilda De Angelis) solving mysteries and helping the falsely accused victims stuck in a patriarchal law system. It is cozy, funny, and makes you hurray for this lawyer trying to be best at what she does in a world of men that deem her unfit to be a lawyer. I googled the show (trailer here) to write this very newsletter and realized that Lydia Poët was in fact a real person and it wasn’t until 1920 that she, as a 65 year old woman, was enlisted in the record of the members of the Council of lawyers and officially recognized as a lawyer. Fans of cosy crime, Agatha Christie, and Sherlock Holmes adaptations would love this.

Need books?

Who doesn’t love a good audio book on a walk or while doing mindless chores? I have months where I read nothing but binge on audiobooks. My favorite haunts for audiobooks are Scribd (Use my code for two months free subscription), LibroFM (My code), and Libby app (to borrow books for free if you are a member at a participating library)

Amazing links

If you are bored, click here

The age of average (Alex Murrell)

How to use AI to do practical stuff : A guide (One useful thing)

Reading list : Asian books to keep on your radar in 2023

22 best graphic novels of all time (Bookriot)

Inside the real and complicated world of luxury water collectors (Bon appetit)—Reminds of a novel in a previous newsletter edition

I hope you’ve been reading well, eating well, and keeping well. Spring is here in this part of the world. I am looking forward to more sun on my skin, long walks and ice cream.

Until next time,

Resh x