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Midnight's Children

Front Cover
780 Reviews
Random House UK Limited, 2011 - Fiction - 647 pages
Winner of the Booker of Bookers
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. Twenty-five 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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User ratings

5 stars
288
4 stars
113
3 stars
66
2 stars
28
1 star
45

Very imaginative; excellent writing; - weRead
Bloody difficult to read... - weRead
A master of story telling. - weRead
An educational experience for me. - weRead
I was a little disappointed by the ending though - weRead
The most beautiful piece of writing. - weRead

Review: Midnight's Children

User Review  - Steve - Goodreads

I truly am sorry, Salman. It's trite to say, I know, but it really wasn't you, it was me. I take all the blame for not connecting, ignorant as I am about the Indian subcontinent's history, culture ... Read full review

Review: Midnight's Children

User Review  - Bibi - Goodreads

It was a torture to read. Delved into a world of fantasy and myth. A lot of precis which simply re-hashes prior information. Protagonist appears confused. Plot draaaaaaaaaaags on and the author delved ... Read full review

All 780 reviews »

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About the author (2011)

Salman Rushdie was born in 1947 and has lived in England since 1961. He is the author of six novels: "Grimus, Midnight's Children," which won the Booker Prize in 1981 and the James Tait Black Prize, "Shame," winner of the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, "The Satanic Verses," which won the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," which won the Writers' Guild Award and "The Moor's Last Sigh" which won the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award. He has also published a collection of short stories "East, West," a book of reportage "The Jaguar Smile," a volume of essays "Imaginary Homelands" and a work of film criticism "The Wizard of Oz." His most recent novel is "The Ground Beneath Her Feet," which was published in 1999.
Salman Rushdie was awarded Germany's Author of the Year Award for his novel "The Satanic Verses" in 1989. In 1993, "Midnight's Children" was voted the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. In the same year, he was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He is also Honorary Professor in the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His books have been published in more than two dozen languages.

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