Shubnum Khan's eloquent and moving debut novel opens in 1932, when a djinn that haunts a house by the sea is in mourning following an unexplained violent event, at once engaging the reader and setting the stage for an intriguing mystery to be unraveled. We then fast-forward to Durban, South Africa, in 2014, during the hottest Christmas anyone can remember. Fifteen-year-old Sana Malek moves with her father, Bilal, to a crumbling house called Akbar Manzil, a once-grand mansion that lay abandoned for years before being converted into apartments. We learn that Sana's mother died four years earlier and Bilal, still grieving, is eager to make a fresh start for himself and his daughter.

However, there is something eerie about the house that cannot be attributed to the frequent power failures, unreliable water supply, and rising damp. Previous tenants have moved in and out, complaining that ...