The Caliph's House

A very interesting book I finished reading recently was Tahir Shah's "The Caliph's House". A personal account of a family's transplant from a first world country to Morocco albeit into an erstwhile Caliph's bungalow. A dilapidated bungalow that was past its prime is bought by Tahir and his wife Rachana and the book is the story of their year long struggle in getting it transformed into a livable paradise straight from the Arabian Nights.

It is so difficult to fathom how every culture reacts differently to circumstances and Tahir captures that so succinctly in his book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I liked the story telling style of Tahir. His personal biography is pretty interesting too, a writer of Anglo-Afghan-Indian ancestry with Sufi traditions thrown in, he has written many other books too. I definitely want to read the others including the one he wrote while he lived in India for a while. That's the time he met Rachana in Bombay I guess.

References:
Tahir Shah
Caliph's House Review by New York Times
Buy the book at Amazon