The iconic masterpiece of India that introduced the world to “a glittering novelist—one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker)WINNER OF THE BEST OF THE BOOKERS • SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time • The fortieth anniversary edition, featuring a new … fortieth anniversary edition, featuring a new introduction by the author
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.
This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Forty years after its publication, Midnight’s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.
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Excellent book especially for people who like to savour the process of reading. Salman Rushdie is a very intelligent poet. Sweet like his chutneys and spicy like his pickles.
My only beef is, I found it artificially preserved as in stretched, could have been shorter. Sorry Mr Rushdie but you do tend to go on a bit. (me too) Salman Rushdie is …
Midnight’s Children is the story of a child named Saleem Sinai who was born as the clock struck midnight and a country got her freedom from British rule. India got her freedom at the midnight hour. Midnight’s Children talks about 1001 children born within the first one-hour of the midnight hour, as a free India was born.
The Indian freedom from …
This wasn’t the easiest read; it was a long book and the narrator rambled, but it was good. It was in turns sad and funny, and gave a good overview of the history of India.
Great read, difficult to follow at times, wonderful characters and interesting story
This was a difficult but informative book. A picture of India history after English rule was ended. Pictured thru the eyes of a child born at the moment of independence and who assumes he is in control of the future of both India and Pakistan. Weird use, or lack of use, of grammer and punctuation. Slow …
Descriptions were realistic and put the reader in the scenes. I like to be able to picture the events and places. Rushdie gives me the sense of being in the place.
Typically, I don’t get on with Man Booker Prize winners – in my experience they tend to be somewhat overwritten, and appeal more to a literary clique than they do to the general public.
However, this book, which I first picked up soon after it was published, and have picked up and read several times since, carried me along. It’s not to everyone’s …
I read this book many years ago, and I can still remember how invested I was in Saleem’s story. This is magical realism at its best – our world but with the curtains over the magic pulled back. A young man discovers he has magical abilities that are linked – no joke – to his mucus production. Rushdie’s choice here brings the magical down into …
What can I say… I am exhausted. This was one the more challenging books I have read in a long time. It took the first 100 or so pages for me to fall in the rhythm of the novel – Saleem the protagonist of this story is narrating his autobiography to Padma, his significant other. Intertwined with his story is the history of postcolonial India. I …