Synopses & Reviews
You've reached the age at which people in this family cross the border into the magical world. It's your turn for an adventure — yes, it's finally here!
So says Haroun to his younger brother, twelve-year-old Luka, in Salman Rushdie's thrilling, delightful, lyrically crafted fable for the young and young at heart.
With the same dazzling imagination and love of language that have made Salman Rushdie one of the great storytellers of our time, Luka and the Fire of Life revisits the magic-infused, intricate world he first brought to life in the modern classic Haroun and the Sea of Stories. This breathtaking new novel centers on Luka, Haroun's younger brother, who must save his father from certain doom.
For Rashid Khalifa, the legendary storyteller of Kahani, has fallen into deep sleep from which no one can wake him. To keep his father from slipping away entirely, Luka must travel to the Magic World and steal the ever-burning Fire of Life. Thus begins a quest replete with unlikely creatures, strange alliances, and seemingly insurmountable challenges as Luka and an assortment of enchanted companions race through peril after peril, pass through the land of the Badly Behaved Gods, and reach the Fire itself, where Luka's fate, and that of his father, will be decided.
Filled with mischievous wordplay and delving into themes as universal as the power of filial love and the meaning of mortality, Luka and the Fire of Life is a book of wonders for all ages. Filled with frolicking wordplay and unexpected twists, and fueled by the power of words and the imagination, this is Salman Rushdie at his best.
Review
“Brilliant wordplay throughout…A celebration of storytelling...and a colorful, kick-up-your-heels delight.” Kirkus Review (starred review)
Review
“For Rushdie, as for the artists he writes about, the pen is a magician’s wand.” Financial Times
Synopsis
Luka's father, Rashid, the legendary storyteller of Kahani, falls suddenly and inexplicably into a sleep so deep that nothing and no one can rouse him. To save him from slipping away entirely, Luka must embark on a journey through the world of magic.
Synopsis
With the same dazzling imagination and love of language that have made Salman Rushdie one of the great storytellers of our time,
Luka and the Fire of Life revisits the magic-infused, intricate world he first brought to life in the modern classic
Haroun and the Sea of Stories. This breathtaking new novel centers on Luka, Haroun’s younger brother, who must save his father from certain doom.
For Rashid Khalifa, the legendary storyteller of Kahani, has fallen into deep sleep from which no one can wake him. To keep his father from slipping away entirely, Luka must travel to the Magic World and steal the ever-burning Fire of Life. Thus begins a quest replete with unlikely creatures, strange alliances, and seemingly insurmountable challenges as Luka and an assortment of enchanted companions race through peril after peril, pass through the land of the Badly Behaved Gods, and reach the Fire itself, where Luka’s fate, and that of his father, will be decided.
Filled with mischievous wordplay and delving into themes as universal as the power of filial love and the meaning of mortality, Luka and the Fire of Life is a book of wonders for all ages.
About the Author
Salman Rushdie is the author of ten previous novels — Grimus, Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and, recently, the Booker of all Bookers), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, and The Enchantress of Florence — and one collection of short stories, East, West. He has also published three works of nonfiction — The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991, and Step Across This Line — and co-edited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a former president of American PEN.