The Haunting of Tram Car 015
core novella 2019 The Dead Djinn Universe
Record
| First published | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.96 (18,272 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 130 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781250294807 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
The second entry in the Dead Djinn Universe is set in the same alternate 1912 Egypt, roughly three decades after the resurgence of magic allowed the country to throw off European colonial rule. Ministry agents Hamed Nasr, a seasoned investigator, and his newer partner Onsi Youssef are assigned to deal with a malevolent supernatural presence that has taken up residence aboard an aerial tram car in Cairo, disrupting the city's transit and unsettling its passengers. Their investigation into the haunting unfolds against the backdrop of Egyptian women's contemporary campaign for the vote, a real social movement of the period that runs alongside the agents' supernatural case. As Hamed and Onsi dig into the tram car's troubled history, they find the entity's presence tied to events and grievances more complicated than an ordinary haunting.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Dead Djinn Universe
- Series: The Dead Djinn Universe core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: P. Djèlí Clark
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award (Best Novella), 2019: won
- Hugo Award (Best Novella), 2020: won
- Locus Award (Best Novella), 2020: won
- Mythopoeic Award (Adult Literature), 2020: won
Notes
- From the series record (The Dead Djinn Universe): Core Canon = all 3 works (Tor.com/Tordotcom, 2016-2021) despite mixed lengths -- under the collection-as-Core precedent, extended here to a single continuous continuity told across escalating lengths (short story, then novella, then novel) rather than a novel series with occasional side fiction. No further installment has been announced as of 2026-08-11.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Dead Djinn Universe: position 2 of 3: previous A Dead Djinn in Cairo (2016) · next A Master of Djinn (2021)
Sources
← The Dead Djinn Universe dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.