Book Club Author Suggestion: Salman Rushdie

Brief Bio:

Salman Rushdie, born Ahmed Salman Rushdie on June 19, 1947, in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, is a prominent British-Indian-American novelist and essayist known for his imaginative and often controversial works. Rushdie’s upbringing was influenced by his Indian Muslim background and his education at prestigious institutions, including the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School in England, and King’s College, Cambridge, where he studied history. His style is often characterized by magical realism, blending fantasy with historical and political themes.

Rushdie’s literary career began with his first novel, Grimus (1975), but he gained international fame with his second book, Midnight’s Children (1981). This novel, which explores India’s transition from British colonialism to independence, won the Booker Prize and was later awarded the Booker of Bookers as the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), became one of his most famous and controversial works. The book’s portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad led to widespread protests in the Muslim world, and in 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s assassination. This forced Rushdie into hiding for several years, although he continued to write and publish, including significant works such as The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Shalimar the Clown (2005), and The Golden House (2017).

In addition to his novels, Rushdie has written numerous essays and articles, contributing to major publications and engaging in public discourse on literature, politics, and freedom of expression. His memoir, Joseph Anton (2012), details his life during the years following the fatwa, providing an in-depth look at the impact of these events on his personal and professional life.

Rushdie has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to literature, including knighthood in 2007 for his services to literature. He remains an influential and outspoken advocate for free speech and continues to be a significant figure in contemporary literature.

Available Works in the Colorado Book Club Resource

The Book Club Resource has 8+ copies of each title available for 8 weeks at a time to reading groups across the state. The descriptions below were taken from Goodreads.com.

Midnight’s Children (1981) | Discussion Questions

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.

Victory City (2023) | Discussion Questions

In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world. Over the next 250 years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing from a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry—with Pampa Kampana at its center.

Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, Victory City is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is in itself a testament to the power of storytelling.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (2024) | Discussion Questions

On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.

A Few Notable Facts

• Before becoming a full-time writer, Salman Rushdie worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies. He created memorable campaigns, including the famous tagline for cream cakes: “Naughty but nice.”
• Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children not only won the Booker Prize in 1981 but was also awarded the Booker of Bookers in 1993 and again in 2008, recognizing it as the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 and 40 years, respectively.
• Following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988, a fatwa was issued against Rushdie by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, calling for his assassination. Rushdie spent nearly a decade in hiding, living under police protection and using the alias “Joseph Anton,” which later became the title of his memoir.
• Despite the controversy and threats, The Satanic Verses is considered a major literary work, praised for its complex narrative and exploration of religious themes. The book was banned in several countries, including India and Iran.
• Rushdie was born into a well-to-do family in Bombay. His father, Anis Ahmed Rushdie, was a Cambridge-educated lawyer turned businessman, and his mother, Negin Bhatt, was a teacher.
• Rushdie moved to England at the age of 14 to attend Rugby School and later studied history at King’s College, Cambridge. His education and experiences in the West greatly influenced his worldview and writing.
• His works often reflect a blend of Eastern and Western cultures, drawing on his Indian heritage and Western education. This unique perspective is evident in the rich, multicultural landscapes of his novels.
• Rushdie is a vocal advocate for free speech and has spoken out against censorship and religious extremism. He has contributed essays and articles to major publications, engaging in global political and cultural debates.
• Rushdie has dabbled in acting, making cameo appearances in films and television shows. He appeared in the 2001 film Bridget Jones’s Diary and the TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• Apart from the Booker Prize, Rushdie has received numerous honorary degrees and literary awards from institutions around the world, acknowledging his contributions to literature and freedom of expression (see below).

Selected quotations

• “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
• “A poet’s work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it from going to sleep.”
• “Our identity is at once plural and partial. Sometimes we feel that we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools.”
• “A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.”
• “Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems — but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems incredible.”
• “Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.”
• “The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame.”
• “How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized. Don’t let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.”
• “Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.”
• “To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world.”
• “The imagination can transform the world in the most astonishing ways.”
• “The truth is always an abyss. One must — as in a swimming pool — dare to dive from the quivering springboard of trivial everyday experience and sink into the depths, in order to later rise again — laughing and fighting for breath — to the now doubly illuminated surface of things.”
• “Fundamentalism isn’t about religion, it’s about power.”
• “Free societies… are societies in motion, and with motion comes friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom’s existence.”
• “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.”
• “History is always ambiguous. Facts are hard to establish, and capable of being given many meanings. Reality is built on our prejudices, misconceptions, and ignorance as well as on our perceptiveness and knowledge.”
• “When you have fought for freedom for so long, sometimes it is hard to let it go.”
• “To conquer fear, you must become fear.”
• “Life is fury. Fury — sexual, Oedipal, political, magical, brutal — drives us to our finest heights and coarsest depths.”

Awards

Literary Awards

• Booker Prize: Midnight’s Children (1981)
• Booker of Bookers: Midnight’s Children (1993, 2008) — Awarded for the best novel in the first 25 and 40 years of the Booker Prize.
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize: The Satanic Verses (1988)
• Whitbread Book Awards (now Costa Book Awards): Novel Award for The Satanic Verses (1988)
• Golden PEN Award: For a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature (2010)
• Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award: Awarded in 2014
• European Union’s Aristeion Prize: The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995)
• Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Best Book): The Enchantress of Florence (2009)
• Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Award, France): Shalimar the Clown (2005)
• German Book Trade Peace Prize: For his advocacy for freedom of expression (2021)

Honors and Recognitions

• Knighthood: Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature (2007)
• Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France): Honored for significant contributions to the arts and literature (1999)
• Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters: Inducted in 2008
• Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature: Elected in 1983
• St. Louis Literary Award: Awarded by the Saint Louis University Library Associates (2009)
• PEN Pinter Prize: Awarded in 2014 for his literary merit and support for freedom of speech

Other Notable Recognitions

• Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement: Received in 2008
• International Freedom to Publish Award: Presented by the International Publishers Association (2008)
• Norman Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement: Awarded in 2010

Sources

• Wikipedia.com
• Amazon.com
• YouTube.com

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