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Contributors | November 10, 2009

Zachary Lazar: IMG Evening's Empire

0 comments By Zachary Lazar

Without knowing it, I'd always had two unspoken arrangements with the world. The first was that I would not trouble it with unpleasant conversation... Continue »
  1. $17.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Evening's Empire: The Story of My Father's Murder

    Zachary Lazar

Midnight's Children

by Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children Cover

ISBN13: 9780140132700
ISBN10: 0140132708
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 3 left in stock at $8.95!

Awards

Winner of the 1981 Booker Prize
Winner of the 1993 Booker of Bookers
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In the moments of upheaval that surround the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the day India proclaimed its independence from Great Britain, one thousand and one children are born — each of whom, though forced to struggle through hardships faced by citizens of a newly independent country, is gifted with supernatural powers. Midnight's Children focuses on the fates of two of these children — the illegitimate son of a poor Hindu woman and the male heir of a wealthy Muslim family — who become inextricably linked when a midwife switches the two boys at birth.

An allegory of modern India, Midnight's Children is a family saga set against the volatile events in the thirty years following the country's independence — the partitioning of India and Pakistan, the rule of Indira Gandhi, the onset of violence and war, and the imposition of martial law. It is a magical and haunting tale of both fragmentation and the struggle for identity that links personal life with national history.

Review:

"Burgeons with life, with exuberance and fantasy....Rushdie is a writer of courage, impressive strength, and sheer stylistic brilliance." The Washington Post Book World

Review:

"Huge, vital, engrossing...in all senses a fantastic book." Sunday Times

Review:

"In Salman Rushdie, India has produced a glittering novelist — one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling." V. S. Pritchett, The New Yorker

Review:

"An extraordinary novel...one of the most important to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation." Robert Towers, The New York Review of Books

Synopsis:

Salman Rushdie's 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel and 1993 Booker of Bookers winner. Born at the midnight of India's independence, Saleem is "handcuffed to history" by the coincidence. He is one of 1001 children born that midnight, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Anaya, September 1, 2006 (view all comments by Anaya)
Midnight's Children, a humorous heartbreaking fairy tale-like story, is a huge landscape of a novel as the main character attempts to fit into his huge paintings. With a loving eye for detail, the author proves he is a miniaturist who writes with astute empathy about children born in the first hour after India's birth after creation of Pakistan. It will take a couple of re-readings to catch all miniature details in woven into the canvas of an intricate plot, strung together with poetical and metaphorical language. But even though the novel tends to render us speechless, it makes for thought-provoking discussion of the real life political drama of the India-Pakistan partition that is embedded into the background of the story.
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Richard, August 16, 2006 (view all comments by Richard)
Magical realism, Indian style. Rushdie packs in lyricism, intrigue, deception, family history, sectarian animosities, historical sweep and pure farce. An ever-astonishing roller-coaster ride.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780140132700
Author:
Rushdie, Salman
Publisher:
Penguin (Non-Classics)
Location:
New York, N.Y., U.S.A. :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
India
Subject:
History
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
Islam
Subject:
Hinduism
Subject:
Supernatural
Subject:
Epic literature
Subject:
Poor children
Subject:
India History 1947- Fiction.
Subject:
Infants switched at birth.
Subject:
Children of the rich
Subject:
Epic fiction
Subject:
Family saga
Copyright:
1980
Series Volume:
402
Publication Date:
January 1991
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
544
Dimensions:
8.10x5.32x1.20 in. 1.03 lbs.
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