It's not unlike a friend asking me into their home and, in a gesture of hospitality, covering everything in carpets and camels and sand while playing the opening song from Disney's Aladdin in order to put me at ease.īut this book! This book made me feel at home even though I've never been to Egypt. All it takes is someone writing "The El-Something" – which translates to "The the-something" - and the record of my reading brain skips and stutters, and I'm suddenly very firmly on the outside of something trying to invite me in. How to explain how much I loved this? Usually fantasies in Arabic-speaking settings are a hard sell for me, as even the competently done ones throw me out of the story with well-intentioned attempts to evoke atmosphere. When the Superintendent of Tram Safety and Maintenance calls them in to deal with the titular haunted tram car, they're both bemused – but taking the case leads them on a merry chase through their city and alternate approaches to magic and philosophy. Even more remarkably, women are on the cusp of gaining the right to vote.Īgainst this backdrop, agents Hamed Nasr and Onsi Youssef represent the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, investigating untoward magical occurrences and abuses. Trams are powered by djinn-made intelligence and overseen by extremely mundane bureaucracy, and automata called "boilerplate eunuchs" with varying degrees of sentience work for and alongside humans. In 1879, Egypt overthrew British rule with the help of a sudden influx of djinn now, in 1912, Cairo's modernity is a mixture of magic and technology.
This novella is perfect and I loved it and you should read it. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Haunting of Tram Car 015 Author P.
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