City of Djinns, published in 1993, records a year that the young William Dalrymple spent living in Delhi with his wife, the artist Olivia Fraser. They rent rooms from the formidable Mrs Puri, a Punjabi refugee who rebuilt her family's fortunes after Partition, and ride around with a taxi driver, Balvinder Singh, whose opinions enliven many chapters.
Dalrymple's method is to travel backwards in time. He talks to survivors of 1947 and of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, explores the remnants of British New Delhi and of the Mughal capital, visits Sufi shrines, eunuch communities and fading Anglo-Indian families, and finally searches for traces of the Delhi associated with the Mahabharata. The djinns of the title are the spirits believed to haunt the ruined city.
Part travel book, part history and part comic memoir, it is full of affectionate portraits and eccentric encounters. It won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and established Dalrymple's reputation, and it remains one of the most popular introductions to the many cities layered within Delhi.
Book details
| Author | William Dalrymple |
|---|---|
| First published | 1993 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Travel |
| Type | Non-fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 340 |
| Setting | Delhi, late 1980s, with excursions into its history |
| Awards | Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 1994 |
Themes
- Layers of history
- Partition memory
- Sufi and Mughal Delhi
- Eccentric characters
- Urban change
Who should read it
Travellers and armchair historians who want a witty, personal guide to Delhi's past and present.