The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil: an exploration of the human heart

2 Jan 2025

Shubnum Khan’s latest novel reads much like eating a Durban curry. It throws together life’s boldest flavours, from grief and vengeance, to love and wander, served in a vessel that boasts both child-like playfulness and sincerity. While posing the risk of feeling anchorless, the story’s multiple layers are woven together in a way that skillfully represents every corner of the human heart.

The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil is about far more than loss and love. Shubnum Khan’s novel, set in a crumbling seaside mansion in Durban, encompasses all the meatiest aspects of the human condition — from jealousy, hopelessness, and cynicism, to curiosity, wander and magic. While taking on a child-like quality, the book shamelessly explores each corner of the human heart, sometimes making the reader wince at its relatability.

Sana, a 15-year-old girl, and her father move into the dilapidated Akbar Manzil mansion with the hopes of finding Home. While initially reluctant, Sana slowly becomes curious about the creaking walls that surround her and the reader is taken on a journey of discovery as she slowly peels back the house’s layers, unearthing stories from a time otherwise forgotten.

“I really wanted to write about that in-between space when you’re turning from a child into an adult. You are so hopeful for the future but you are also so fearful because you just have no idea what it holds,” said Khan in an interview with Daily Maverick..

Using Sana’s youth as the vessel for the story preserves the curiosity and wander that Khan said so tragically falls away as people grow older.

“I think it’s so important to maintain that curiosity that makes you want to look beyond. Because I think as you get older you just sort of accept what’s happening, but there’s magic in looking beyond,” said Khan.

Melting pot of memory

The story stitches together the lives and memories of more than 10 characters, all of whom reside or resided within Akbar Manzil’s sometimes-stifling embrace, delving into the intimate depths of their thoughts and feelings.

“Inititally, I started off with the idea of a young girl speaking to an older person in an apartment,” said Khan. But over the eight years that it took to complete the novel, Khan said the story became an accumulation of the thoughts she had during that time. The apartment soon became a house, and then the house filled with many rooms.

“And if you have that many rooms, you have to fill [them] with more characters and so it really grew and grew over time into this idea of a haunted house by the sea,” said Khan.

“I was throwing everything at the novel: tragedy, romance, horror,” said Khan.

Sana’s story runs parallel to that of a woman who walked the same hallways eight decades prior, who at first also resented the walls that came to shape her life, but eventually learned to love them. As Sana discovers more about Meena Begum, she comes to know herself through another’s story, much like what Khan’s readers might experience.

This amalgamation of stories puts the novel at risk of feeling anchorless, but Khan managed to skillfully weave all these stories into one, held together by the walls of a haunted house, which seemed to take on a life of its own.

Blood and ghosts

Using a physical structure to contain the story gave Khan room to play, without allowing the story to run away with itself. Magical realism melts into reality, fooling the reader into briefly believing the fantasy, which, at points, sends chills down your spine. The djinn that lurks in Akbar Manzil’s dark corners, yearning to walk with humans again, seems to poke its tendrils through the pages, pulling you in.

The novel uses horror as another vessel for exploring humanity: even the djinn has its own thoughts and feelings.

Despite its otherwise sinister existence, the reader comes to sympathise with the strange creature. Giraffes and lions walk Akbar Manzil’s grounds, along with its ghosts — perhaps emblematic of the novel’s marriage of the morose and playful.

Sana pushes open one of the dormers; the silence revolts as a deep creak cuts the air.

The djinn follows Sana up; it has not been here since the incident in 1932. It has not even glanced into the luth of the monster since then. It runs its fingers over the tick dust on the dead woman’s table; it peers at her papers and books and crawls onto her chair and lays back, overwhelmed suddenly. It remembers the last time it was here.

The forgotten city

As the stories in the Akbar Manzil mansion unfold, Durban sits silently at its feet. “We get so many stories from other cities in South Africa and Durban generally gets left behind. This is also because creatives often leave Durban — the opportunities are not great for creatives in Durban. So people often leave the city and they take the stories with them,” said Khan.

While Khan felt she owed it to the city, after living there for most of her life, to tell some of its story, The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil remains mostly confined to the haunted mansion by the sea.

The novel veers away from Durban itself but leaves remnants of the city’s history in its characters. The city speaks through Razia Bibi’s cynicism, Sana’s search for a place to belong, Pinky’s trouble with asserting herself and Zuleikha’s broken heart and incessant smoking.

Following signs

While skillfully juggling romance, loss, horror and magic, Khan brings in the theme of fate. By injecting meaning into otherwise common occurrences — deeming them “Signs” — fate adds its own magical touch to the story.

By exploring fate, Khan aimed to present the reader with an alternative way to live life. As a person who follows signs herself, Khan demonstrates what kind of life one could lead. “It gives you a sense of satisfaction to know that you tried your best to follow what you see,” said Khan.

In a country like South Africa, where two given lives differ like chalk and cheese, the onus of reminding us what remains the same falls on the shoulders of creatives. Khan took on this task in The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil by exploring themes familiar to us all, giving each reader a Home. DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa

Melting pot of memory

Blood and ghosts

The forgotten city

Following signs