Midnight's Children

Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is destined from birth to be special. For he is one of 1,001 children born in the midnight hour, children who all have special gifts, children with whom Saleem is telepathically linked. But there has been a terrible mix up at birth, and Saleem s life takes some unexpected twists and turns. As he grows up amidst a whirlwind of triumphs and disasters, Saleem must learn the ominous consequences of his gift, for the course of his life is inseparably linked to that of his motherland, and his every act is mirrored and magnified in the events that shape the newborn nation of India. It is a great gift, and a terrible burden.

Winner of Booker of Bookers 1993
Winner of James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction) 1981
Winner of Booker Prize for Fiction 1981
Runner-up for The BBC Big Read Top 100 2003
Short-listed for Best of the Booker 2008
Short-listed for BBC Big Read Top 100 2003

“A magical-realist reflection of the issues India faced post-independence including culture, language, religion, and politics... It's a truly incredible work.”

'Salman Rushdie has earned the right to be called one of our great storytellers.' Observer Rushdie's novel took a post-colonial "empire fights back" spirit, and a deep personal understanding of the politics of Indian partition, and exploded them into something teeming with imaginative life... He inhabits a hybrid consciousness, with a telepathic connection to the other children of midnight, and tells its stories for all he is worth. -- Tim Adams Observer A wonderful, rich and humane novel that is safe to call a classic. -- Sam Jordison Guardian The extraordinary alchemy of Midnight's Children was its miraculous fusion of the fantastical and the historical. -- Jereme Boyd Maunsell Evening Standard -- Jack Rear Verdict

Salman Rushdie is the author of eight novels, one collection of short stories, and four works of non-fiction, and the co-editor of The Vintage Book of Indian Writing. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. The Moor's Last Sigh won the Whitbread Prize in 1995, and the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

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