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Zusatztext “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 Informationen zum Autor Salman Rushdie Klappentext The iconic masterpiece of India that introduced the world to "a glittering novelist-one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling" (The New Yorker) WINNER OF THE BEST OF THE BOOKERS • SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time • The twenty-fifth anniversary edition, featuring a new introduction by the author 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. Leseprobe The Perforated Sheet I was born in the city of Bombay . . . once upon a time. No, that won’t do, there’s no getting away from the date: I was born in Doctor Narlikar’s Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. And the time? The time matters, too. Well then: at night. No, it’s important to be more … On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came. Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India’s arrival at independence, I tumbled forth into the world. There were gasps. And, outside the window, fireworks and crowds. A few seconds later, my father broke his big toe; but his accident was a mere trifle when set beside what had befallen me in that benighted moment, because thanks to the occult tyrannies of those blandly saluting clocks I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country. For the next three decades, there was to be no escape. Soothsayers had prophesied me, newspapers celebrated my arrival, politicos ratified my authenticity. I was left entirely without a say in the matter. I, Saleem Sinai, later variously called Snotnose, Stainface, Baldy, Sniffer, Buddha and even Piece-of-the-Moon, had become heavily embroiled in Fate—at the best of times a dangerous sort of involvement. And I couldn’t even wipe my own nose...
