Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (English) Paperback Book

Description: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie A novel set in 20th century India, whose central character is a man born at the midnight of Indias independence. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of Indias independence, Saleem Sinai is destined from birth to be special. For he is one of 1,001 children born in the midnight hour, children who all have special gifts, children with whom Saleem is telepathically linked. But there has been a terrible mix up at birth, and Saleem s life takes some unexpected twists and turns. As he grows up amidst a whirlwind of triumphs and disasters, Saleem must learn the ominous consequences of his gift, for the course of his life is inseparably linked to that of his motherland, and his every act is mirrored and magnified in the events that shape the newborn nation of India. It is a great gift, and a terrible burden. Notes New Vintage edition of the Booker of Booker winners. Author Biography Salman Rushdie is the author of eight novels, one collection of short stories, and four works of non-fiction, and the co-editor of The Vintage Book of Indian Writing. In 1993 Midnights Children was judged to be the Booker of Bookers, the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. The Moors Last Sigh won the Whitbread Prize in 1995, and the European Unions Aristeion Prize for Literature in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Review Salman Rushdie has earned the right to be called one of our great storytellers. Observer Rushdies novel took a post-colonial "empire fights back" spirit, and a deep personal understanding of the politics of Indian partition, and exploded them into something teeming with imaginative life... He inhabits a hybrid consciousness, with a telepathic connection to the other children of midnight, and tells its stories for all he is worth. -- Tim Adams * Observer * A wonderful, rich and humane novel that is safe to call a classic. -- Sam Jordison * Guardian * The extraordinary alchemy of Midnights Children was its miraculous fusion of the fantastical and the historical. -- Jereme Boyd Maunsell * Evening Standard * A magical-realist reflection of the issues India faced post-independence including culture, language, religion, and politics... Its a truly incredible work. -- Jack Rear * Verdict * Promotional India has produced a great novelist...a master of perpetual storytelling V.S. Pritchett, New Yorker Kirkus UK Review Winner of the 1981 Booker Prize and the 1993 Booker of Bookers, this is the tale of Saleem Sinai and the other 1000 babies born in the magic hour after Indian independence on 15 August 1947. Its brilliant style owes something to magic realism, but also to an acute awareness of Indian myth and history. In some senses, it is a comic allegory of the latter although it was sufficiently satirical about contemporary India - and the sterilizations ordered by Sanjay Gandhi, for example - for it to be banned there. It it is hard to understand the path of 20th-century writing without having read this book. (Kirkus UK) Kirkus US Review When Indian novelist Rushdie arrived with Grimus in 1979 we called him "an imagination to watch." And hell be watched indeed once this bravura fiction starts circulating - a picaresque entertainment thats clearly inspired by close readings of the modern South American fabulists and, above all, Sternes Tristram Shandy. Rushdies own Tristram is named Saleem Sinai - and he is born at the stroke of midnight, August 15, 1947, making him exactly contemporary with the life of India-as-a-nation. In fact, Saleem and 580 other "midnight children" born at that moment grow up to find themselves equipped with powers of telepathic communication, foresight, and heightened individual sensoria: Saleems particular gift is a "cucumber" of a nose with which he goes through life literally smelling change. The Sinai family, originally Kashmiri Moslems, migrate to Bombay, living in ex-colonial digs. And a switch at birth with a neighbors baby seeds narrative trouble that flowers at different times later on in the book: opera buffa complications all the way. Saleem seems to be in the middle of all cataclysmic Indian events, too. Hes present during language riots and a dinner-party coup in Pakistan (where his mother fled after a marital spat involving the revealed baby-switch). Because of his olfactory talent, he becomes a "man-dog" tracker for a Pakistani military unit during the debacle in Bangladesh. And, back in Bombay, Saleem is clapped into jail with the other "midnight children" by "the Widow" - Indira Gandhi - during the dictatorial Emergency. Rushdie swoops, all colors unfurled, all stops out, through and around his synchronic fable with great gusto and sentimental fizz. And though such a rodomontade would be shameless if made out of more familiar material, the sub-continental excessiveness (and the fascinating history lesson which is incidentally built in) keeps us loading and firing right along. Tour de force, in other words - and so, of course, a little exhausting; but, unlike other fantastical picaresques, this one is truly worth the effort. A big striped balloon of a book, often dizzying with talent. (Kirkus Reviews) Prizes Winner of Booker of Bookers 1993 Winner of James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction) 1981 Winner of Booker Prize for Fiction 1981 Runner-up for The BBC Big Read Top 100 2003 Short-listed for Best of the Booker 2008 Short-listed for BBC Big Read Top 100 2003 Review Text A magical-realist reflection of the issues India faced post-independence including culture, language, religion, and politics... Its a truly incredible work. Review Quote A magical-realist reflection of the issues India faced post-independence including culture, language, religion, and politics... Its a truly incredible work. Promotional "Headline" India has produced a great novelist...a master of perpetual storytelling V.S. Pritchett, New Yorker Details ISBN0099578514 Author Salman Rushdie ISBN-10 0099578514 ISBN-13 9780099578512 Format Paperback Imprint Vintage Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 823.914 Birth 1947 Media Book Short Title MIDNIGHTS CHILDREN Language English Residence US Series Vintage Books Publisher Vintage Publishing Year 1995 Pages 672 Publication Date 1995-05-18 Audience General/Trade UK Release Date 1995-05-18 AU Release Date 1995-05-18 NZ Release Date 1995-05-18 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:1124504;

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