Vultures in the House of Silence

eBook, 303 pages

English language

Published Jan. 29, 2024 by Dastan Press.

ISBN:
979-8-9896540-1-7
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3 stars (1 review)

A boy wakes up surrounded by corpses. Unable to move, he is assaulted by vultures who stop pecking at him only when he speaks. To survive this nightmarish ordeal, he tells them the story of how he ended up on their menu…

What follows is the wild tale of the young gardener Khurafa, coping with the aftermath of the Mongol invasion of Baghdad and the death of his parents amidst the bloodshed. After a vivid dream and several supernatural encounters, he becomes convinced that an ancient group of nine sorcerers called the Servants are bent on world domination. Accompanied by his scholarly mentor Shaykh Nariman, and the sly, uncannily perceptive Zakiyya, he seeks saintly help against the Servants, but finds mostly monsters instead.

1 edition

Vultures in the House of Silence, by A.R. Latif

3 stars

A.R. Latif’s historical fantasy, Vultures in the House of Silence, has one of the grimmest opening scenes I’ve ever encountered. Our protagonist, Khurafa, is lying near death in an abandoned stone tower. Vultures pluck at the stumps where his hands used to be. They only stop when Khurafa speaks. To spare himself more pain before he succumbs to his wounds, Khurafa tells the story of how he got where he is...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.