The Caliph's House - Couverture souple

Shah, Tahir

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0553816802 ISBN 13 : 9780553816808

Editeur : Bantam, 2007

Synopsis

[ THE CALIPH'S HOUSE BY SHAH, TAHIR](AUTHOR)PAPERBACK

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

Look into the eyes of a jinn and you stare into the depths of your own soul...

When Tahir Shah decided to pursue his dream of bringing a vast ruin of a palace in the Moroccan city of Casablanca back to life, he soon learned that he and his family had bought a great deal more than they'd bargained for. For Dar Khalifa, 'The Caliph's House', not only came with three guardians inherited from the previous owner but also more than its fair share of jinns - those invisible, often mischievous, sometimes malign spirits that take up residence in abandoned houses in Morocco...

Entertaining, often hilarious and beautifully written, Tahir Shah's acclaimed account of his year-long adventure in this kingdom where the modern and the medieval collide is a magical, multi-faceted delight.

'Funny, moving, fast-paced and thoughtful . . . as intricate, complex and beautiful as the Arabian Nights world it describes' Jason Webster, author of Duende

'Full of charm and humour, elevated by a consistent sense of the beauty and mystery of everyday life' Guardian

'A vivid evocation of the spirit of the place . . . combines the pleasures of good property porn with those of the best travel writing' Daily Telegraph

'An extraordinary tale . . . written with tremendous verve, colour, compassion and wisdom, it's a magical story'Geographical Magazine

'Wonderfully entertaining' Doris Lessing

'A year abroad, a house rebuilt, but with a difference. Extremely odd characters and the narrative drive of a good novel. Very funny' John Man, author of Genghis Khan

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Look into the eyes of a jinn and you stare into the depths of your own soul...

Writer and film-maker Tahir Shah - in his 30s, married, with two small children - was beginning to wilt under brash, cramped, ennervating British city life. Flying in the face of friends' advice, he longed to fulfil his dream of finding a place bursting with life, colour, history and romance - somewhere far removed from London - in which to raise a family. Childhood memories of holidaying with his parents, and of a grandfather he barely knew, led him to Morocco and to 'Dar Khalifa', a sprawling and, with the exception of its jinns, long-abandoned residence on the edge of Casablanca's shanty town that, rumour had it, once belonged to the city's Caliph.

And so begins Tahir Shah's gloriously vivid, funny, affectionate and compelling account of how he and his family - aided, abetted and so often hindered by a wonderful cast of larger-than-life local characters: guardians, gardeners, builders, artisans, bureacrats and police (not forgetting the jinns, the spirits that haunt the house) - returned the Caliph's House to its former glory and learned to make this most exotic and alluring of countries their home.

The Caliph's House is a story of home-ownership abroad - full of the attendant dramas, anxieties and frustrations - but it is also much more. Woven into the narrative is the author's own journey of self-discovery, of learning about a grandfather he hardly knew, and of coming to love the magical, multi-faceted, contradictory country that is Morocco.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Bantam
• Date d'édition: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0553816802
• ISBN 13: 9780553816808
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 368