M. G. Vassanji

The Assassin's Song

Published 2007

In the aftermath of the brutal violence that gripped western India in 2002, Karsan Dargawalla, heir to Pirbaag -- the shrine of a mysterious, medieval sufi -- begins to tell the story of his family. His tale opens in the 1960s: young Karsan is next in line after his father to assume lordship of the shrine, but he longs to be "just ordinary." Despite his father's pleas, Karsan leaves home behind for Harvard, and, eventually, marriage and a career.