Joseph's Box

by Suhayl Saadi

Recently-bereaved Zuleikha MacBeth wades into the Clyde one morning and recovers a large box, with which she becomes obsessed. The discovery of the box brings her together with Alex, a lute-playing clerk, and they manage to open the box - only to find six further boxes inside which they can only open once they have followed cryptic clues. The clues lead Zulie and Alex on a physical and emotional journey modulated through music across Glasgow, Argyllshire, Lincolnshire, Sicily, Lahore, and finally the frozen peaks of the 'Roof of the World'. Zulie, a troubled doctor, finds herself sucked into the vortex of the terminally ill Archie MacPherson, an ambivalent, visionary ex-WW2 airman and Glasgow shipyard worker. In the manner of a lord of misrule, Archie's dying consciousness begins to shape and ultimately define Zuleikha and Alex's quest as they progress through the seven Sufi stations of sacrifice, truth, power, obedience, life, memory and beauty. Drawing on a wide framework of cultural and spiritual reference, this is an extraordinary and ambitious novel with a visceral sensuality and subtle touches of magical realism, in the vein of Okri, Murakami and Pamuk.

696 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Suhayl Saadi (born 1961) is a physician, author and dramatist based in Glasgow, Scotland. His varied literary output includes novels, short stories, anthologies of fiction, song lyrics, plays for stage and radio theatre, and wisdom pieces for The Dawn Patrol, the Sarah Kennedy show on BBC Radio 2.

Reviews

[Saba Razvi]

Really loving this book. Much of it feels like being in a really powerful dream, very real, very surreal, sensually evocative and spiritually affecting. It's an incredibly dense novel and I'm finding that I prefer reading a little at a time rather than just zooming through it. I'll post more of a comprehensive review when I finish it. I'm only about halfway through, at the moment. 11/24/2010.

[Stantontas]

I like that it's ambitious and that it treats Glasgow as somewhere other than a gritty realistic backdrop.
However I felt it was too long & could have benefited from harsher editing. Too many digressions (I have a longer review hidden a notebook somewhere I might return to this.)

[Nadia Mirza-Saadi]

One of the best novels I have ever read. With beautiful aspects to it. If this novel ever had a low rating, please be reassured that it is due to the racism of others and not the quality of the novel. To those who find it too long, many of J.K. Rowling's novels were longer, as were many other young adult fiction novels. So quite frankly take your racism to someone who cares. This novel was absolutely refreshing to read. I loved the representation, especially how it was expressed. With a dark begining Suhayl Saadi captures ones interest within the first page! An underrated novel and underrated author, well ahead of his times. He was listed as the top 100 Scottish authors, well deserved but of course racism and elitism in the literature industry is rife, especially when none of them (Oxbridge too) had the ability to create a multi-cultural masterpiece like this. Please read and leave a good review, let's not let this amazing author fall through the cracks of time. His novels certainly surpass and even travel through it.

[Asif]

Began reading it a while back and then misplaced it somewhere...need to buy another copy to finish this tale. Started off really well, then lost its way a little, then picked up again as the quest began in earnest...and then I lost the bloody thing!!