About the Book

IN THE APPARITION, ACCLAIMED AUTHOR M.G. VASSANJI CONJURES A HAUNTING AND VISIONARY FABLE SET DURING THE FINAL DAYS OF THE DELHI SULTANATE.
It s the thirteenth century, and Delhi is slowly slipping into decline under the ageing Sultan Alauddin Khilji. Fears of famine, foreign invasion and court intrigue plague the city. In the midst of all this ferment, a strange, enigmatic object appears in the sky. No one knows what it is, but the persistence of the apparition and its passivity seem to portend something sinister.
The Sultan orders Amir Hassan al-Shirazi Sufi, poet, intellectual and, some would say, the Sultan s favourite to investigate this cosmic phenomenon. Hassan s search takes him to every quarter of Delhi, and everywhere, paranoia, confusion and fear reign supreme. Just when it seems that the city will collapse under the weight of its own misgivings, a distant grey cloud approaches. As its people watch, awestruck, strange creatures half-man, half-bird descend on the city. It is a takeover by the Avians and the death of the old order in Delhi.
Amir Hassan observes Delhi adapt to this new reality. Will alien rule finally bring peace to the beleaguered city, he wonders. And will that be at the cost of its identity?
Ambitious, audacious and genre-defying, M.G. Vassanji s The Apparition delivers a haunting tale of a decaying empire, the lure of absolute power and the perseverance of the human spirit.

About the Author

M.G. Vassanji is the author of nine novels, two short story collections, two memoirs and a biography of Mordecai Richler. He has been awarded the Scotiabank Giller Prize twice, the Governor General's Prize, and the Commonwealth First Book Prize, among others. He has been shortlisted for the Writers Trust Award and India's Crossword Prize. His work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish and Swahili.
M.G. Vassanji's last novel, Ever