Raza Mir, "Murder at the Mushaira: A Novel" (Aleph Book, 2021)

New Books in Literature · Apr 22, 2021 · 38m

May 1857. The Indian city of Shahjahanabad, today called Delhi, is tense. British officers are worried about rumors of insubordination and rebellion elsewhere in India, while the local residents both await and fear a coming storm of revolutionary fervor. Trying to make a living in this setting is Mirza Ghalib, one of India’s most celebrated poets, well known for his works in Urdu and Persian. He is also the protagonist, at least in a fictionalised form, of Murder at the Mushaira (Aleph Book Company, 2021) by Raza Mir. The novel is a murder mystery: a particularly disliked poet is murdered at…