One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie’s best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in mid-flight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key work of our times.
Reviews -
"A masterpiece."- The Sunday Times
"A staggering achievement, brilliantly enjoyable."- Nadine Gordimer
"[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths."- Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Sterne's Tristram Shandy . . . Salman Rushdie, it seems to me, is very much a latter-day member of their company."- The New York Times Book Review
"An exhilarating, populous, loquacious, sometimes hilarious, extraordinary novel. A rollercoaster ride over a vast landscape of the imagination."- Angela Carter, The Guardian
Who banned this book...
- This book sparked riots around the world for what some called a blasphemous treatment of the Islamic faith. In 1989, five people died in riots in Pakistan and a stone-throwing mob injured 60 people in India. Iranian spiritual leader Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini publicly condemned the Indian-British author to death, putting a $1 million bounty on his head. It was banned in Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, and Senegal,
- Japan fined anyone who sold the English-language edition, and a Japanese translator was subsequently stabbed to death for his involvement with the book.
- two major U.S. booksellers — Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble — removed the book from their shelves after receiving death threats. And while Rushdie’s publisher, Viking Penguin, denounced such “censorship by terrorism and intimidation,” threats of violence forced the company to temporarily close its New York City office to improve security.
- in 1988, the Indian finance ministry announced the banning of the novel, under Section 11 of the Indian Customs Act. It was also banned in Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. In 1989 it was banned in Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Singapore. The last nation to ban the book was Venezuela, in June 1989. Venezuelan officials threatened anyone who owned or read the book with 15 months of prison.
Reviews -
"A masterpiece."- The Sunday Times
"A staggering achievement, brilliantly enjoyable."- Nadine Gordimer
"[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths."- Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Sterne's Tristram Shandy . . . Salman Rushdie, it seems to me, is very much a latter-day member of their company."- The New York Times Book Review
"An exhilarating, populous, loquacious, sometimes hilarious, extraordinary novel. A rollercoaster ride over a vast landscape of the imagination."- Angela Carter, The Guardian
Who banned this book...
- This book sparked riots around the world for what some called a blasphemous treatment of the Islamic faith. In 1989, five people died in riots in Pakistan and a stone-throwing mob injured 60 people in India. Iranian spiritual leader Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini publicly condemned the Indian-British author to death, putting a $1 million bounty on his head. It was banned in Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Liberia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, and Senegal,
- Japan fined anyone who sold the English-language edition, and a Japanese translator was subsequently stabbed to death for his involvement with the book.
- two major U.S. booksellers — Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble — removed the book from their shelves after receiving death threats. And while Rushdie’s publisher, Viking Penguin, denounced such “censorship by terrorism and intimidation,” threats of violence forced the company to temporarily close its New York City office to improve security.
- in 1988, the Indian finance ministry announced the banning of the novel, under Section 11 of the Indian Customs Act. It was also banned in Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. In 1989 it was banned in Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Singapore. The last nation to ban the book was Venezuela, in June 1989. Venezuelan officials threatened anyone who owned or read the book with 15 months of prison.