Tahir Shah

A cross between The Thousand and One Nights and The Men in Black,THE PRISM is the first awe-inspiring novel in Tahir Shah's much-awaitedJINN HUNTER series. Quite possibly the most original book of its age, it lures the reader into aTwilight Zone conjured from pure imagination.

Through a life cloaked in mystery, Edwardian polymath Hannibal G. Fogg pushed the boundaries of exploration, science and code-breaking - producing feats of unrivaled cerebral dexterity. Hailing from a landed family, Fogg was a confidant to world leaders, a soldier, swordsman, prolific author, inventor, collector, and quite probably the most extraordinary man ever to have lived. But, while such genius won him accolades and fame, it also fanned the flames of envy. Unable to take Fogg's triumphs any longer, the British establishment sought to have him discredited. His life work was publicly destroyed in what was to become known as the 'Great Foggian Purge'. Banished from England, he lived out his days in secrecy - before disappearing on an expedition to Manchuria in the winter of 1939. Almost eight decades passed. Then, one morning William Fogg receives a letter from a legal firm in London, claiming he's the sole inheritor to his great-great-grandfather's Estate. Knowing almost nothing of his forebear, he takes possession of the single object left in the bequest - a large rusty iron key... the key to a door in Marrakesh. And there begins the treasure trail of mystery, danger and uproar, as William pieces together the clues left for him by Hannibal Fogg. Zigzagging through five continents, the quest reveals how Alexander the Great was never beaten in battle. By completing the life work of Hannibal, William Fogg strives to lift the veil on the Supreme Secret of Man. First in a series of ground-breaking adventure novels from master storyteller, Tahir Shah, Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man is unlike anything published in recent times. Ten years in the making, it's as worldly and wise as the indefatigable Hannibal Fogg. By the celebrated author of The Caliph's House, a TIME Top Ten Book of the Year.

Through a life cloaked in mystery, Edwardian polymath Hannibal G. Fogg pushed the boundaries of exploration, science and code-breaking - producing feats of unrivaled cerebral dexterity. Hailing from a landed family, Fogg was a confidant to world leaders, a soldier, swordsman, prolific author, inventor, collector, and quite probably the most extraordinary man ever to have lived. But, while such genius won him accolades and fame, it also fanned the flames of envy. Unable to take Fogg's triumphs any longer, the British establishment sought to have him discredited. His life work was publicly destroyed in what was to become known as the 'Great Foggian Purge'. Banished from England, he lived out his days in secrecy - before disappearing on an expedition to Manchuria in the winter of 1939. Almost eight decades passed. Then, one morning William Fogg receives a letter from a legal firm in London, claiming he's the sole inheritor to his great-great-grandfather's Estate. Knowing almost nothing of his forebear, he takes possession of the single object left in the bequest - a large rusty iron key... the key to a door in Marrakesh. And there begins the treasure trail of mystery, danger and uproar, as William pieces together the clues left for him by Hannibal Fogg. Zigzagging through five continents, the quest reveals how Alexander the Great was never beaten in battle. By completing the life work of Hannibal, William Fogg strives to lift the veil on the Supreme Secret of Man. First in a series of ground-breaking adventure novels from master storyteller, Tahir Shah, Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man is unlike anything published in recent times. Ten years in the making, it's as worldly and wise as the indefatigable Hannibal Fogg. By the celebrated author of The Caliph's House, a TIME Top Ten Book of the Year.

Through a life cloaked in mystery, Edwardian polymath Hannibal G. Fogg pushed the boundaries of exploration, science and code-breaking - producing feats of unrivalled cerebral dexterity. Hailing from a landed family, Fogg was a confidant to world leaders, a soldier, swordsman, prolific author, inventor, collector, and quite probably the most extraordinary man ever to have lived. But, while such genius won him accolades and fame, it also fanned the flames of envy. Unable to take Fogg's triumphs any longer, the British establishment sought to have him discredited. His life work was publically destroyed in what was to become known as the 'Great Foggian Purge'. Banished from England, he lived out his days in secrecy - before disappearing on an expedition to Manchuria in the winter of 1939. Almost eight decades passed. Then, one morning William Fogg receives a letter from a legal firm in London, claiming he's the sole inheritor to his great-great-grandfather's Estate. Knowing almost nothing of his forebear, he takes possession of the single object left in the bequest - a large rusty iron key... the key to a door in Marrakesh. And there begins the treasure trail of mystery, danger and uproar, as William pieces together the clues left for him by Hannibal Fogg. Zigzagging through five continents, the quest reveals how Alexander the Great was never beaten in battle. By completing the life work of Hannibal, William Fogg strives to lift the veil on the Supreme Secret of Man. First in a series of ground-breaking adventure novels from master storyteller, Tahir Shah, Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man is unlike anything published in recent times. Ten years in the making, it's as worldly and wise as the indefatigable Hannibal Fogg. By the celebrated author of The Caliph's House, a TIME Top Ten Book of the Year.

Through a life cloaked in mystery, Edwardian polymath Hannibal G. Fogg pushed the boundaries of exploration, science and code-breaking - producing feats of unrivalled cerebral dexterity. Hailing from a landed family, Fogg was a confidant to world leaders, a soldier, swordsman, prolific author, inventor, collector, and quite probably the most extraordinary man ever to have lived. But, while such genius won him accolades and fame, it also fanned the flames of envy. Unable to take Fogg's triumphs any longer, the British establishment sought to have him discredited. His life work was publically destroyed in what was to become known as the 'Great Foggian Purge'. Banished from England, he lived out his days in secrecy - before disappearing on an expedition to Manchuria in the winter of 1939. Almost eight decades passed. Then, one morning William Fogg receives a letter from a legal firm in London, claiming he's the sole inheritor to his great-great-grandfather's Estate. Knowing almost nothing of his forebear, he takes possession of the single object left in the bequest - a large rusty iron key... the key to a door in Marrakesh. And there begins the treasure trail of mystery, danger and uproar, as William pieces together the clues left for him by Hannibal Fogg. Zigzagging through five continents, the quest reveals how Alexander the Great was never beaten in battle. By completing the life work of Hannibal, William Fogg strives to lift the veil on the Supreme Secret of Man. First in a series of ground-breaking adventure novels from master storyteller, Tahir Shah, Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man is unlike anything published in recent times. Ten years in the making, it's as worldly and wise as the indefatigable Hannibal Fogg. By the celebrated author of The Caliph's House, a TIME Top Ten Book of the Year.

Sorcerer's Apprentice is the amazing story of Shah's apprenticeship to one of India's master conjurers, Hakim Feroze, and his initiation into the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Told with self-deprecating wit, panache, and an eye for the outlandish, it is an account of a magical journey across India. Feroze teaches the author the basics of his craft, such as sleights of hand, immersing his hands in boiling oil and lead, and--Aaron's old trick from the Bible--turning a rod into a serpent. To complete his training and prove himself, he is sent on a quest to discover the ways illusion is manifested in every corner of the subcontinent. Saddled with a hilarious sidekick and guide he calls the Trickster, Shah travels from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay. Even as he recounts the most miraculous and bizarre feats of the sadhus, sages, sorcerers, avatars, fortune- tellers, healers, hypnotists, and humbugs whom he encounters, he reveals--and admires--the imagination and resourcefulness ordinary Indians deploy in order to survive. In this incredible book, Tahir Shah lifts the veil on the East's most puzzling miracles and exposes a side of India that most never imagine exists.

Collects traditional stories of Morocco that are recounted by an eccentric cast of characters: from master masons who work only at night to Sufi wise men who write for soap operas and Tuareg guides addicted to reality TV.

Named one of Time magazine's Ten Best Books of the Year, Tahir Shah's The Caliph's House was hailed by critics and compared to such travel classics as A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun. Now Shah takes us deeper into the real Casablanca to uncover mysteries hidden for centuries from Western eyes. In this entertaining jewel of a book, Tahir Shah sets off across Morocco on a bold new adventure worthy of the mythical Arabian Nights. As he wends his way through the labyrinthine medinas of Fez and Marrakech, traverses the Sahara sands, and samples the hospitality of ordinary Moroccans, Tahir collects a dazzling treasury of traditional wisdom stories, gleaned from the heritage of A Thousand and One Nights, which open the doors to layers of culture most visitors hardly realize exist. From master masons who labor only at night to Sufi wise men who write for soap operas, In Arabian Nights takes us on an unforgettable, offbeat, and utterly enchanted journey.

Look into the eyes of a jinn and you stare into the depths of your own soul... Writer and film-maker Tahir Shah - in his 30s, married, with two small children - was beginning to wilt under brash, cramped, ennervating British city life. Flying in the face of friends' advice, he longed to fulfil his dream of finding a place bursting with life, colour, history and romance - somewhere far removed from London - in which to raise a family. Childhood memories of holidaying with his parents, and of a grandfather he barely knew, led him to Morocco and to 'Dar Khalifa', a sprawling and, with the exception of its jinns, long-abandoned residence on the edge of Casablanca's shanty town that, rumour had it, once belonged to the city's Caliph. And so begins Tahir Shah's gloriously vivid, funny, affectionate and compelling account of how he and his family - aided, abetted and so often hindered by a wonderful cast of larger-than-life local characters: guardians, gardeners, builders, artisans, bureacrats and police (not forgetting the jinns, the spirits that haunt the house) - returned the Caliph's House to its former glory and learned to make this most exotic and alluring of countries their home. The Caliph's House is a story of home-ownership abroad - full of the attendant dramas, anxieties and frustrations - but it is also much more. Woven into the narrative is the author's own journey of self-discovery, of learning about a grandfather he hardly knew, and of coming to love the magical, multi-faceted, contradictory country that is Morocco.

An English travel writer and author of Sorcerer's Apprentice describes his and his family's experiences after purchasing a rundown palace in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, as they work to renovate the house, exorcise the jinns--mischievous invisible spirits--haunting the structure, and cope with the house's human guardians. Reprint.