Endlessly playful and richly imaginative, Shubnum Khan’s vibrant debut delves into the transformative powers of love and grief as it explores the legacy of South Africa’s complicated past. Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate overlooking the sparkling ocean beyond the city of Durban. 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 Sana encounters a djinn that lingers just out of reach in the shadowy corners of the house, she 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.
