City of Djinns by William DalrympleCompleted 14 November 2012 I want to see Dalrymple's Delhi: the century-old mithai stall at the corner of Chandni Chowk, the old havelis, Nizamuddin's whirling dervishes. I want to hear the Urdu of Ghalib and see not alleys and roads but Shahjahanabad, the greatest and most beautiful city the Mughal empire has known. In the City of Djinns, Dalrymple walks the fine line between travel memoir and two thousand years of history, and deftly balances both with expert skill. He summons catacombs, hidden tunnels and the ghosts of eras past, superimposing them on modern Delhi. The result is something absolutely magical.
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