In his book the City of Djinns, William Dalrymple peels through the history of Delhi like a young curious historian and beautifully binds it all together like a masterly storyteller, sharing facts and tales of the past inspired by Delhi's people, literature, art, architecture, and its ruins.

From the riots of 1984 to Indraprastha, the mythical city of Pandavas, this travelogue has covered it all.

Having been brought up in Delhi and being a history buff that I am, I kept pondering over whether I will get any new insights or details which I am not already aware of.

Not only did I get new insights but was also able to understand what lead to the cascade of events that has shaped the 'modern' Delhi - Delhi as we know today!

This book is written in more of a candid conversation style and will have you hooked from the very first page.

As William Dalrymple has mentioned and what still holds true even today is that, different areas of Delhi have preserved intact different centuries, even different millenia.
Here, minds set in different ages walk the same pavements drink the same water, and return to the same dust.

After having read the book, I cannot agree more that Delhi is " a portrait of a city disjointed in time, a city whose different ages lay suspended side by side as in aspic, a city of djinns".

Read this book to not just understand the history of Delhi, of it's very famous monuments, it's culture, but to also understand how it was able to rebuilt itself every single time, like a phoenix from the fire.

Fascinating book on a fascinating city--Delhi. The juxtapositioning of personal experiences with detailed historical research makes this book very rewarding--and entertaining.

Right of way belongs to the driver of the largest vehicle. Buses give way to heavy trucks, Ambassadors give way to buses, and bicyclists give way to everything except pedestrians. On the road, as in many other aspects of Indian life, Might is Right.

'City of Djinns' has been one of the finest books I've had the privilege of reading.

Having liked Delhi in one of his travels during the 80s, William decides to move with his wife during the early 90s. In the next 12 months, we follow his life here amid interesting characters who introduce him to life in Delhi, as William traces back the deep history of this complicated city. The narrative is fascinating for it diverges further over time - on one hand, we live William's life in 1991, on the other, we go further back from Partition to British rule, then Mughal invasion, the Sultanate, the Chouhans, and finally to Indraprastha/Mahabharata.

I must confess I was partial to the book because some descriptions reminded me of life growing up in the early 00s even though the book pre-dates my upbringing by a decade. I suppose most citizens enjoy a 'love to hate' sentiment with their cities. The idiosyncratic habits, customs, and colloquial phrases had me nodding and chuckling a fair deal. But unlike the sycophantic accounts of darbars in Mughal courts that William mentions, my praise is rationalized on the following -an ease of reading, the flow of his narrative, and the depth of William's exploration. Not only is it a well-written account, it's a well-lived account that required countless interactions with scholars, priests, enunchs, bureaucrats, senile Anglo-Indian women, drivers, and dozens of books, documents, and worn-down monuments that spread across centuries.

Delhi is a palimpsest, writes William in an updated foreword, and I can't put it better. Time and again, this city has been built, pillaged, broken, and re-built. It's the Djinns love for the city that keeps it alive, mentions a Pir to William. I suspect the book is loved by them too for it has also endured.

Arguably the best book I've read this year. Kudos to Mr. Dalrymple.

I had moved away from this book a few times. It took me a long time getting around to finishing it. I loved it. Loved the way Delhi has been depicted through it's long history backwards. A very very good and interesting read.

So there were really three narratives going on in this book. Two were highly successful and one I found frustrating, so I'm not sure how to rate this.
The first narrative is the depiction of the author's daily life in Delhi. These were so fascinating and funny. Although the book was written decades ago, it still felt very much like India today. These sections were so entertaining that they pretty much made up for any shortcomings.
The second narrative is a condensed history of Delhi. These were also well-told and entertaining as well as informative.
Where the book suffered for me was in the architectural descriptions. Obviously the author is very into the architecture but I found it very difficult to share his enthusiasm with so few accompanying illustrations. The ones provided were not enough for me to visualize sufficiently was he was so taken by. Therefore, these sections bored me a bit and I had a tendency to want to skim over them to get to the enjoyable parts.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to get a general portrait of Delhi

A decent introduction to the different periods and appearances of Delhi’s history. It was quite brief and passed over each aspect fairly quickly, but I didn’t find this to be too big of an issue as I didn’t know anything about it before. City of Dijnns has definitely sparked my interest in reading more around this city in the future :)