Despite its clunky title this is not an erotic investigation of coping with religious violence. Its Indian author, Tabish Khair, is a university teacher in Aarhus, in Denmark. The narrator of the story is a young Pakistani academic in the same place. With a friend, Ravi, he moves into a flat with Karim, an Indian Muslim taxi driver who is also a small-scale religious leader. He welcomes devotees for prayers and debate, and so is created the setting for the “Islamist axe plot”, a fictional backdrop to the ruckus created by a Danish newspaper cartoon that offended many Muslims. Khair presents a cast who have much in common as well as polarising differences. Cultural and class divides are illustrated in a delightful and credible way that mostly avoids judgmental disparagement. A clever and enlightening work.
