Published by Liberty Books, the novel ‘The Sufi Storyteller’ by Faiqa Mansab is based on an unusual plot and falls into the genre of literary fiction and mystery.
A murder mystery, inspired by the patterns of Sufi stories and fairy tales, haunts the lives of Layla, the protagonist, and her mother, Mira. What does the murderer want?
Layla is a professor at a small university in America, teaching a course on storytelling and the symbolism behind the stories, in an attempt to unravel them and reach the truth at their core. Her focus is on Sufi stories. Layla is also on the quest to find her birth mother.
Things turn ugly as a woman is found murdered in the library. Layla is badly shaken. Three murders take place, and all of them are women. As Layla tries to uncover the truth, she stumbles upon clues the murderer leaves in the shape of stories.
Layla suspects Khayyam and Professor Reza. The novel reaches its climax when the truth about Layla’s past is revealed. As her past comes rolling out of Pandora’s box, the pieces of the puzzle fall in place.
What is it that Layla discovers that shakes the reader to the core?
This House of Clay and Water was Faiqa Mansab’s debut novel. A talented and gifted writer, Mansab has now written this novel after an eight-year hiatus. The amount of research that has gone into The Sufi Storyteller is immense, and the way Mansab entwines Sufism with murder forms a unique narrative.
The novel is divided into three sections. Each section dwells on one issue.
The murder mystery is not solved in a conventional manner. Instead, it takes the reader and the characters through memory, grief, and myth.
Someone is after Layla’s life, too. But who is he, and what is his motive for killing Layla? As the story unfolds, the reader is shocked to discover the truth about the murderer. It comes as a big surprise, and the reader trembles along with Layla.
The novel is a remarkable collection of Sufi stories, and the way it links them to the theme of reaching out to the murderer is truly unimaginable.
There are narratives within narratives. Parallel stories are running alongside the main plot. The subplots are equally important, adding to the primary thematic theme of the novel. They are crucial in identifying the killer.
The characters are well-developed. Layla’s character emerges as that of a strong and unbeatable woman.
Mira is a selfish woman in Layla’s eyes, but that is not entirely true. Mira has her reasons to be absent from Layla’s life.
Professor Reza is good-looking and attractive, but there is something strange about him.
The novel takes the reader through an uncomfortable journey of love, hate, and revenge. All the emotions are rooted in the Sufi stories. Can these contradictory emotions be reconciled? The answer is in the novel. The author deserves commendation for delivering such a well-researched and coherent novel.
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