The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

South African author Khan’s U.S. debut follows Sana and her father, who rent an apartment in a rundown mansion in Durbin, South Africa. The ghost of Sana’s dead twin sister comes with them, an unwanted but inescapable presence. Still reeling from her mother’s death, Sana entertains herself by getting to know the eccentric tenants and exploring the house’s discarded relics and attic rooms. After gaining access to the locked east wing, where a woman named Meena once lived, Sana becomes obsessed with the building’s history and original owners. She loses herself in Meena’s abandoned diaries, which reveal an epic story stretching back to the mansion’s original owner, Akbar Ali Khan, whose love for his second wife set a terrible tragedy in motion. Meanwhile, Khan reveals another of the house’s occupants, a djinn who loved Meena since the beginning and now welcomes Sana’s revitalizing presence. Narrator Soneela Nankani’s lilting voice is perfectly matched to Khan’s musical writing, capturing the longing and heartbreak in this absorbing tale.