# The Thing About Thugs

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/tabish-khair/the-thing-about-thugs

![The Thing About Thugs](https://quivercdn.com/covers/corsair/tabish-khair/the-thing-about-thugs_978-14-7211-274-3.jpg?v=2026-05-18%2001%3A35%3A31)

- Authors: [Tabish Khair](https://www.bookquiver.com/tabish-khair)
- Language: en_GB
- Published: 2014-02-20

## Description

A subversive, macabre novel of a young Indian man’s misadventures in Victorian London as the city is racked by a series of murders In a small Bihari village, Captain William T. Meadows finds just the man to further his phrenological research back home: Amir Ali, confessed member of the infamous Thugee cult. With tales of a murderous youth redeemed, Ali gains passage to England, his villainously shaped skull there to be studied. Only Ali knows just how embroidered his story is, so when a killer begins depriving London’s underclass of their heads, suspicion naturally falls on the “thug.” With help from fellow immigrants led by a shrewd Punjabi woman, Ali journeys deep into a hostile city in an attempt to save himself and end the gruesome murders. Ranging from skull-lined mansions to underground tunnels a ghostly people call home, The Thing about Thugs is a feat of imagination to rival Wilkie Collins or Michael Chabon. Short-listed for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, this sly Victorian role reversal marks the arrival of a compelling new Indian novelist to North America.

## Editions

### The Thing About Thugs

- Publisher: corsair
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-14-7211-274-3
- Published: 2014-02-20
- Language: en_GB