House of Djinn

In this commanding sequel to SHABANU: DAUGHER OF THE WIND and HAVELI, Suzanne Fisher Staples returns to modern-day Pakistan to re-examine the juxtaposition of traditional Islamic values with modern ideals of love.

Reviews:

In this eloquently written sequel to Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind (1989) and Haveli (1993), Shabanu has been in hiding for ten years, fearing for the life of her daughter, Mumtaz. Everyone, including her parents and daughter, believes Shabanu to be dead, but it’s time for her to return from “the realm of the buried” and seek out her daughter. Fifteen-year-old Mumtaz has fallen in love with her Hindu tennis teacher at the Lahore Club; meanwhile, her cousin Jameel lives in California and has given his heart to a beautiful Jewish skateboarder. When the family’s patriarch dies, his choice of successor stirs up old jealousies and renewed violence, causing the lives of Shabanu, Mumtaz and Jameel to converge. Staples skillfully draws readers into the complicated web of relationships in the fictional Amirzai family in this fascinating tale of the conflict between tribal tradition and modernization in contemporary Pakistan. Though this can stand on its own, familiarity with its predecessors adds depth and richness to an important saga. (author’s note, glossary) (Fiction. 11+)
-- Kirkus Review(starred)

Splendidly drawn characters caught between ancient Pakistani traditions and modern Western influences mark this strong sequel to Staples’s Shabanu (1989) and Haveli (1993, both Knopf). For 10 years, Mumtaz has lived uneasily with her deceased father’s extended family, sent there when her mother, Shabanu, staged her own death to protect her daughter from her treacherous Uncle Nazir. Attending a modern school and doted on by her grandfather Baba, a tribal patriarch who embraces Western ways of thinking, Mumtaz treasures the arrival each summer of her skateboarding cousin and best friend Jameel, who lives in California with his parents. At 15, Mumtaz is thrown into emotional disarray when she learns that Shabanu is alive and in hiding nearby. Then Baba’s unexpected death prompts Jameel’s succession as tribal leader, and the edict that Jameel and Mumtaz are to be married leaves the teens reeling. The richly detailed backdrop of upper-class Pakistani life in Lahore ranges from private country clubs to open-air markets, with exotic touches such as secret messages sent by pigeons. Staples adds a supernatural element via the djinn who appears to Mumtaz and Jameel in the form of Baba, offering posthumous guidance and protection. The author explores the role of educated women in traditional Islamic society, the importance of family and tribe in the Pakistani social structure, and the impact of Western education on emerging leadership through the candid reactions, honest emotions, and complex relationships of multidimensional people. Their story moves along quickly and intensely with elements of intrigue and adventure, holding readers’ attention and sympathies.
-- Joyce Adams Burner
    School Library Journal

Ten years after the events of Haveli (rev. 1/94), Shabanu’s daughter Mumtaz, fifteen, copes with the “death by a thousand pinpricks” she suffers as an orphan (or so she thinks) in the Lahore residence of her grandfather, Baba, Amirzai patriarch and tribal leader. Baba’s love protects her among the hostile extended family, and summer visits from her American cousin, Jameel, help her endure the constant small humiliations. When Baba dies suddenly and his will appoints teenaged Jameel the new tribal leader, Mumtaz learns that Baba also willed that she and Jameel marry—immediately. Caught up in a family power struggle, torn between Pakistani tradition and American mores, Mumtaz and Jameel must re-imagine their futures and become the “ancient souls with modern eyes” Baba has termed them. The skirmishes, intrigues, and loves of the colorful Pakistani/American tribal family give this book the tenor of a short dynastic epic with a touch of the supernatural thrown in. Indeed, the intricacies of plot and character (Shabanu emerges from hiding; a murderous uncle must be thwarted) could have done with a novel half again as long, but Staples’s attention to sensual detail (the smell of camphor and ginger blossoms, tuberoses and jasmine; the image and sound of gardeners clipping “monsoon-green” grass with steel scissors) and quick-paced plotting make it a thoroughly absorbing read.
-- Deirdre F. Baker
    Horn Book