City of Djinns reveals to the reader today what nothing else can. The Delhi as we know it, has layers and they need an experienced hand to unravel. I couldn't help but feel the irony in finding a European writer doing what many natives would never have taken up.
The history of Delhi as the city of seven cities, that each dying city led to the birth of the next, is mystical. William Dalrymple negotiates his way through the course of these seven cities using the periods of British rule, the Mughal rule and likewise. The most interesting takeaway for me as a reader has been the deep insight into what the Mughals did in India. The insiders view into characters like Shah Jehan, Roshanara, Jahanara, Aurangzeb, Nizam-ud-Din, Ibn-Battuta are delightful and rest to peace a lot of misconceptions I had about this period.
William Dalrymple is able to weave together a narrative that explains his own interest in the city and close connection to the various British personalities that walked the Indian subcontinent during the past centuries.
The past of Lutyens, South Delhi, Tughlaqabad and Shahjehanabad, Daultabad, Agra are also interwoven together with that of Delhi.