In Persian myth, it is said that Akbar the Great once built a palace which he filled with newborn children, attended only by mutes, in order to learn whether language is innate or acquired. As the years passed, and the children grew into their silent and difficult world, this palace became known as the Gang Mahal, or Dumb House. In his first novel, John Burnside explores the possibilities inherent in a modern-day repetition of Akbar's investigations. Following the death of his mother, the unnamed narrator creates a twisted variant of the Dumb House, finally using his own children as subjects in a bizzare experiment. When the children develop a musical language of their own, however, their gaoler is the one who is excluded, and he extracts an appalling revenge. An enquiry into the acquisition of language, a dark voyage of exploration into a deeply disturbed mind, or a metaphysical discourse on the nature of the soul, the novel raises many questions, in a bleak, lyrical and haunting narrative of madness and human cruelty.
- ISBN10 0224042076
- ISBN13 9780224042079
- Publish Date 15 May 1997
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 April 2014
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Jonathan Cape Ltd
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 208
- Language English