Dumb House

In Persian myth it is said that Akbar the Great built a palace which he filled with newborns attended only by mutes in order to learn whether language is innate or aquired. As 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. The unnamed narrator creates a twisted variant of the Dumb House. When the children develop a musical language of their own excluding their jailer he extracts an appalling revenge.