Although this fun book claimed to be a real account of Shah's adventure in Casablanca with a fixer upper, it soon becomes clear that he took significant journalistic license to weave a memorable story. The Moroccan preoccupation with djinns (genies) was the central character of this melodrama and through Shah's eyes, we get a comical glimpse of life in modern Morocco. I read this book with great anticipation and once I came to terms with the literary devices he used to create a fictional narrative, I enjoyed the book immensely. This is a marvelous introduction to the mosaic that makes up Maroc or Maghreb, as the locals call their wonderful country. The gist of the story is a jaded Scottish-Afghan Londoner of Persian stock married to an Indian wife with 2 young kids making a go at migrating to the former French Morocco. He purchased a dilapidated Dar (courtyard house) and spent an entire year coaxing the colorful local craftmen to redeem its former glory with varying levels of success. The last few pages was splendidly crafted to move the reader to the brink of tears as he revealed the kindness of the locals behind the adamant traditions that bind them. This telling of a personal story is reminiscent of the ancient story tellers of Israel whose accounts informed the writers of the Old Testament, where historical events were weaved into memorable vignettes and embellished to emphasize theological claims. Tahir Shah is a master story teller and I look forward to his other offerings. That a writer can bring a smile of inner joy to readers he will never meet signals the high art of the craft we call writing. Long may we treasure this most human of capabilities - the make sense of the world and transmit it through geography and history.