Short description
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself handcuffed to history by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent. This is a family saga set against the background of the India of the 20th century.
Long description
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously 'handcuffed to history' by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent - and whose privilege and curse it is to be both master and victims of their times. Through Saleem's gifts - inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of smell - we are drawn into a fascinating family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of the 20th century.
Review
Extraordinary . . . one of the most important [novels] to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation.
- The New York Review of Books
The literary map of India is about to be redrawn. . . . Midnight's Children sounds like a continent finding its voice.
- The New York Times
In Salman Rushdie, India has produced a glittering novelist- one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling.
- The New Yorker
A marvelous epic . . . Rushdie's prose snaps into playback and flash-forward . . . stopping on images, vistas, and characters of unforgettable presence. Their range is as rich as India herself.
- Newsweek
Burgeons with life, with exuberance and fantasy . . . Rushdie is a writer of courage, impressive strength, and sheer stylistic brilliance.
- The Washington Post Book World
Pure story- an ebullient, wildly clowning, satirical, descriptively witty charge of energy.
- Chicago Sun-Times
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