The present-day narrator is a cynical, womanising Sikh journalist and tour guide who loves Delhi the way he loves Bhagmati, a hijra he met near a mosque: helplessly and against all advice. His episodes, set in the 1970s and 1980s, are earthy and comic, full of the city's ruins, bureaucrats and visiting foreigners.
Between them, Khushwant Singh hands the stage to people from Delhi's past: a Hindu cast out by his community in the 13th century, the poet Amir Khusrau, Timur, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir, an Englishman and others caught in the 1857 uprising, a man present at the building of New Delhi, and finally participants in Partition and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The book took Singh about twenty-five years to write and reflects his love of history and his irreverence. Its frank sexuality divided reviewers, but its scope makes it a lively, if unorthodox, biography of a city repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Readers who prefer restraint may find it excessive, but it is never dull.
Book details
| Author | Khushwant Singh |
|---|---|
| First published | 1990 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 391 |
| Setting | Delhi across six centuries, from the Delhi Sultanate to 1984 |
Themes
- History of delhi
- Power and conquest
- Desire
- Religious conflict
- The city as character
Who should read it
Readers who enjoy irreverent historical fiction and want a tour of Delhi through the centuries.