The Assassin's Song

M.G. Vassanji's magnificent new novel provides further proof of his unique, wide ranging and profound genius. The Assassin's Songis a shining study of the conflict between ancient loyalties and modern desires, a conflict that creates turmoil the world over -- and it is at once an intimate portrait of one man's painful struggle to hold the earthly and the spiritual in balance.

In The Assassin's Song,Karsan Dargawalla tells the story of the medieval Sufi shrine of Pirbaag, and his betrayal of its legacy. But Karsan's conflicted attempt to settle accounts quickly blossoms into a layered tale that spans centuries: from the mysterious Nur Fazal's spiritual journeys through thirteenth century India, to his shrine's eventual destruction in the horrifying "riots" of 2002.
From the age of eleven, Karsan has been told that one day he will succeed his father as guardian of the Shrine of the Wanderer: as the highest spiritual authority in...