Salmon Rushdie

 

Midnight's Children

Saleem is born at the exact moment that Pakistan is split from India. Like Oscar in The Tin Drum and Eva in Eva Sleeps, Saleem is torn between his two parent countries, and like Oscar, Saleem has magical powers. This allegorical, magical real tale explores the challenges faced by the newly independent India.

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The Satanic Verses

​The Satanic Verses begins in media res, with a midair conversation between Gibreel and Saladin, as they fall though the skies after their plane was bombed over the English Channel. In magical real fashion, the two men, both Muslim Indian immigrants to the UK, resume their lives but have meanwhile taken on the personas of the archangel Gabriel and the devil. Satanic verses (alluding to the satanic verses falsely whispered to the prophet Muhammad) abound in the story: evil little love missives, paranoid delusional beliefs, Iago-like whisperings, and enticements to undertake disastrous pilgrimages. The novel is a critique of both religious fundamentalism and of the discrimination and hardships faced by Muslim British immigrants.