The Caliph’s House
10 Best Books of the Year
5. Tahir Shah, The Caliph's House
One cold, wet afternoon Shah decided he'd had enough of London. The result was The Caliph's House, a lively account of how the travel writer moved his pregnant wife and young daughter to Casablanca, buying a decrepit Arabian Nights complex once owned by a real caliph. Shah encountered slothful house-renovation crews and irascible neighbors, but also had to dodge gangsters, suicide bombers, plagues of rats and — worst of all — jinns, the spirits that many Moroccans believe are hazards of daily life. He learned to deal with the jinns the Moroccan way, sprinkling drops of his blood in the toilet, burying chunks of meat in the garden and, eventually, hiring 24 drum-banging exorcists for a two-day expulsion ritual. The Caliph's House ends with the residence beautifully renovated and the transplanted Londoners better for the experience. So much better that Shah is working on a sequel. No word on the jinns' next move. — D.M.
