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150th out of 329 books
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The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca
by
Tahir Shah
In the tradition of A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, acclaimed English travel writer Tahir Shah shares a highly entertaining account of making an exotic dream come true. By turns hilarious and harrowing, here is the story of his family’s move from the gray skies of London to the sun-drenched city of Casablanca, where Islamic tradition and African folklore conve...more
Hardcover, 349 pages
Published
January 31st 2006
by Bantam
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A fascinating and often hysterically funny look at life in Morocco, through the eyes of an Afghan who was primarily raised in England, but has traveled widely. I loved the sayings which headed every chapter, such as: "Never give advice in a crowd" and "Every beetle is a gazelle in the eye of its mother." Shah was very lucky to be able to connect with his grandfather's life as well, because his grandfather had spent his last years in Morocco. Meeting those people who had kn...more
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I have to confess that my opinion of this book may be swayed by my minor obsession with the following topics: Morocco; picking up and moving your life to a new and exotic locale; and refurbishing old houses with traditional techniques. Since this book is about the author's experience moving his entire family from England to Morocco, buying a villa and working with local artisans to return it to its former glory, it was right up my alley!
The author has a wonderful, strong sense of self in ...more
The author has a wonderful, strong sense of self in ...more
i really enjoyed this book!!! the different culture and its customary responses were hilarious to see as an outsider. I really like Tahir Shah's books and will be buying this for many people on my Christmas list.
it is an easy read to pick up at any time and i am able to put it down. this is valuable for me who reads whenever i get a second and often cannot put down a book.
It is made up of short stories.
it is an easy read to pick up at any time and i am able to put it down. this is valuable for me who reads whenever i get a second and often cannot put down a book.
It is made up of short stories.
Tahir Shah has a lot of good reasons for moving to Morocco. He wants to escape England and the rat race. He wants to recapture the magic of his own childhood vacations in Morocco. He wants to learn more about the grandfather that had died there years ago. He wants a house to renovate, one that will allow his delusions of grandeur to run wild.
Shah gets all of that and more when he buys a crumbling palace, Dar Khalifa (The Caliph’s House) in Casablanca. He also gets three guardians (t...more
Shah gets all of that and more when he buys a crumbling palace, Dar Khalifa (The Caliph’s House) in Casablanca. He also gets three guardians (t...more
bookczuk
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
elizabeth, dana
Recommended to bookczuk by:
hazrabai
When hazrabai saw this on my bookshelf, she became very excited. She'd been about to order a copy for me, because she loved the book so much. What was so striking is that she said to me that this was the first book of this sort that really captured for her what it felt like to live in a foreign country. And why that was so striking is that she's lived in India since 1972. Shah takes us along as he picks his wife and two tiny children up from a life in London and, inspired by his memories of ...more
This belongs to the groups of books written about someone from one country buying property in another and trying to settle down/fit in. Tahir Shah writes about leaving grey England with his young family (baby is 3 weeks old!) and settling in an old house in Casablanca. Although his father's family is Afghan, his grandfather died in Morocco, and he's spent many childhood vacations in Morocco, trying to live there was another story. He makes many many mistakes, trying to renovate this huge buil...more
I really liked this book. Thought I had pretty much had it with this type of book, which has gotten very repetitive. Englishman/American buys dilapidated but picturesque house in foreign country (usually a foreign country with a warm climate) and relates his misadventures in fixing it up, meeting quaint, picturesque locals, etc.
But Tahir Shah goes way beyond the conventions of the genre -- his book really does convey a lot of the reality (and also some of the fantasy) of life in ...more
But Tahir Shah goes way beyond the conventions of the genre -- his book really does convey a lot of the reality (and also some of the fantasy) of life in ...more
Such a very fabulous and indeed engaging novel about the Moroccan culture seen from the deepest experience of Tahir who is taking Casablanca for his home now. In fact I was going to meet him together with a bunch of American expatriate friends last January, but unfortunately I was bound to supervise the regional end term English exams. Being a member of a book club in Facebook which we've created for reading and discussing books, I am inclined to cut and paste my previous review of this novel he...more
We're traveling to Morocco at the end of March, and I was recommended this book by a very helpful guide I've been talking to there.
It's a hilarious, insightful, and often poignant tale of Shah's first year renovating a house in Casablanca. Having recently moved to Europe for a year, I can relate to a lot of the frustrations and obstacles he encounters... and it being Africa, those are multiplied by about 10,000. But he negotiates them with grace and poise, and eventually adapts far ...more
It's a hilarious, insightful, and often poignant tale of Shah's first year renovating a house in Casablanca. Having recently moved to Europe for a year, I can relate to a lot of the frustrations and obstacles he encounters... and it being Africa, those are multiplied by about 10,000. But he negotiates them with grace and poise, and eventually adapts far ...more
This book made me so nostalgic for Morocco. I appreciate the perspective the author took. He vented frustrations about cultural differences without tainting his descriptions with haughty colonial judgement. He was very open to the cultural crux the djin maintain in Morocco and I thought he navigated the situation well. I think it is fantastic that so much emphasis was placed on Moroccan artisans. It really is a country replete with artistic splendor. Reading about what each town in Morocco is "...more
Tired of gloomy, rainy London and its lack of tradition and values, Shah decides to pack up his family and buy a crumbling mansion in Casablanca titled Dar Khalifa. Morocco holds a special place in the author's heart as it was home to his childhood vacations and where his grandfather, a great Afghan tribal leader, spent his last years.
At first it appears that Dar Khalifa is Shah's dream home with its splendid courtyards, lush date palms and the bright sun of a relaxed North African ...more
At first it appears that Dar Khalifa is Shah's dream home with its splendid courtyards, lush date palms and the bright sun of a relaxed North African ...more
It is delightful tale of life in Casablanca with its neighbours and cohabitants including the jinns, not to forget the cafes (inhabited by henpecked husbands) and the merchants.
You might think you want a change - even a drastic change - in your life, but after reading this book, you might be happy with the usual humdrum. The author, an Afghani married to an Indian woman and living in England, really misses the sun, remembers his childhood family vacations wandering in northwest Africa, and decides to capture that geography and less-hectic lifestyle for his own children. He buys a long-unoccupied palace in the middle of a shantytown in Casablanca and embarks upon the ov...more
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Another book that I don't know how to rate. It was amusing, I'll give it that. I think I would have gotten more out of it if I hadn't been living in Morocco for so long. During a lot of the book, I was thinking that the author was stupid or that he had done things that were really stupid/ naiive. Then the language thing - I guess he speaks fluent French and in Casablanca that works fine because everyone there speaks French but things were so easy for him because he always seemed to have either a...more
Cheryl in CC NV
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommended to Cheryl in CC NV by:
Delicious Dee the Challenge Addict
Thank you Dee for an intriguing rec. - not a travel book or a history, I take it. I'm excited to get it from my library.
Got it. Opened it. Already feel engaged and would not have torn myself away to write this note had I not had to get up anyway to answer the phone. Going back to it now.
Ok, done. A couple of times I got exasperated and thought I'd probably rate it low. The author doesn't analyze or follow through with his anecdotes and episodes - it's so frustrating to ...more
Got it. Opened it. Already feel engaged and would not have torn myself away to write this note had I not had to get up anyway to answer the phone. Going back to it now.
Ok, done. A couple of times I got exasperated and thought I'd probably rate it low. The author doesn't analyze or follow through with his anecdotes and episodes - it's so frustrating to ...more
I feel like I enjoyed this book way more having read it while actually in Morocco. Everything is so much more meaningful when you're actually looking at the stuccowork, driving between the different neighborhoods of Casablanca, etc etc etc!
Am still a little weirded out by the almost complete nonentity of women in the book, though. Women occasionally provide information, complain, or give birth; men do things. It was hard to tell how much of that was the author and how much is a refl...more
Am still a little weirded out by the almost complete nonentity of women in the book, though. Women occasionally provide information, complain, or give birth; men do things. It was hard to tell how much of that was the author and how much is a refl...more
Ok, Tahir Shah may be my new favorite author... this book is about his move with his young family from London to Casablanca and their purchase and subsequent renovation of a huge villa on the coast. Part travel-log, part memoir, and full of passion for his new home, the book covers his first year in Casablanca and explores some of the intricacies of Moroccan culture as seen and finally accepted by a man raised in Western, British culture - it is in turns hilarious, familiar and very intimate in ...more
An utterly charming and very funny book. Tahir Shah is a terrific writer. "Casablanca" may be my favorite movie of all time so I have long wanted to visit Morocco. This was to be the year and then came the unrest in N. Africa. I am not as brave (or as foolhardy) as Tahir Shah. His first year of living in Casablanca was hardly a walk in the park, but his telling of it is about as entertaining as you can get. I don't know yet whether I'm more or less eager to visit Morocco after re...more
I'm fascinated by stories of people who have found ways of making a life in the world so far beyond my own comfort zone. I'm grounded in a steady paycheck from a steady job that allows me the free time to pursue my favorite hobbies close to home, including vicarious adventures around the world from the comfort of my own couch/poolside/park/lunch-break thanks to authors like Shah. What a rich, exotic, and exciting place Shah has brought to life for us in this quirky tapestry of a book.
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Bookmarks Magazine
added it
In the March 2006 issue of The Atlantic, Terry Castle faced his addiction to the shelter magazines and furnishings catalogues that drive the "billion dollar business of home improvement." These same addicts put books like Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence and Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun atop the best seller lists. Travel writer Tahir Shah (In Search of King Solomon's Mines; Sorcerer's Apprentice) possesses the same idealistic (and some critics say na_îve) pursuit of greener gras
...more
I was inspired to pick up this book by an upcoming trip to Morocco and it was exactly what I hoped it would be - a nuanced, exhilarating and sometimes incredibly funny story about life in Casablanca. It is full of gems on adjusting to life in a Muslim country, trying to determine what advice to follow, which individuals to take as friends, and how to assert your own personality while respecting and learning from the local culture.
The book is ostensibly about Shah's decision to move ...more
The book is ostensibly about Shah's decision to move ...more
Tahir Shah wearies of London and its safe banality. He finally convinces his pregnant wife to buy a disaster of a mansion in Morocco and relocate there with their young daughter. From the beginning, their adventure feels doomed. Cats are found hanging by ropes from trees, strangled. The next door neighbor is the mysterious head of the Casablanca Mafia. Renovation efforts are led by a team of workers who can’t seem to complete anything. Everyone seems to believe in diabolical jinns, spirits who l...more
Enjoyable enough read, but a little repetitive with the superstitious natives and their djinns alternating with the menace of a mysterious gangster who wishes the author to fail in his endeavor to fix up a glorious old house in Casablanca. IN the end it is somewhat unclear why he would want to live there as the local culture is not portrayed in a very interesting light other than its old world craftsmanship and the usual plotline about the locals decidedly unbritish approach to schedules. The pr...more
Memoir of an Englishman's first year of living in Morocco and renovating an old house. He chooses the perfect anecdotes to let the reader understand how truly different Morocco is from the western world. So perfect that he doesn't even have to state his interpretation. I laughed at a lot of the things that happened, and was amazed at some things. No matter how seemingly strange the goings-on in his house and community, he presents it all with great respect and affection for his new neighbors. Lo...more
I have read a couple of these books were people do mjor life changes and it always amazes me how little preparation they take and how incredibly naive they are. He starts the books telling us that all his friends and family were against the move and I now agree with them. Not because of the idea of such a drastic move (from London to Casablanca) but because the guy is a bit of an idiot. For a start he makes no start on learning either French or Arabic, he signs a contract in arabic without getti...more
One reviewer commented that portions of the book were "hysterically funny" - I don't think so - mildly amusing yes, but hysterically funny no. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you have lived abroad and want the nostalgia of recalling the craziness that accompanies trying to get things done like a home renovation. I felt there were hints of much more interesting stories throughout this book that were never told. My favorite part of this book was that my daughter's name, Malika, w...more
Humours sprang from cultural differences. What we think is superstitous could be a life and death issue in other cultures. if we want to get along , we have to respect others cultures . But, when do we draw the line , I know Friday the 13th is nothing but another day. Tell it to my friends , they would say bad things is waiting for me . Shall we just respect others belief but make our own conclusion. What if someone insists Friday 13th is bad and I have to believe it to fit in..... Ah... s...more
After reading this book, I was astounded by just how naive I was about the Moroccan culture in general when I traveled there last year. Tahir Shah explained the reasoning behind a number of unique experiences I'd had that I couldn't quite put my finger on before. Never again will I walk through a graveyard in Morocco without thinking of the Jinns (ghosts) that may be walking in my footsteps. While I wished that he'd given more details from both his wife and children's points of view, I was thoro...more
One of the best in the "fixing up a house in a foreign country" genre, The Caliph's House has good measures of hilarity and horror. My favorite aspect is seeing the family learn that British solutions to problems don't work so well in Morocco. For example, if you're having trouble with a customs agent, of course you should take a second (Moroccan) wife to ingratiate yourself. Or, if a contractor owes you money, you can't just call him and ask for it. It's better to bring a huge feast t...more
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“The backstreet cafe in Casablanca was for me a place of mystery, a place with a soul, a place with danger. There was a sense that the safety nets had been cut away, that each citizen walked upon the high wire of this, the real world. I longed not merely to travel through it, but to live in such a city.”
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