Speaking of Stories

transforming short stories from the page to the stage

 

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SALMAN RUSHDIE

Salman Rushdie (1947- )Born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India , Rushdie was educated at the University of Cambridge . His early publications include the novels Grimus (1974), Midnight's Children (1981), and Shame (1983), in which he employed fantasy and dreams in a surrealist style. Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was an unexpected critical and popular success. Rushdie also wrote a report on his travels in Nicaragua , The Jaguar Smile (1987), and in 1990 his children's book Haroun and the Sea of Stories was published.

The Satanic Verses (1988), a novel combining fantasy, philosophical ruminations, and comic aspects, was well received, but it also aroused the ire of many Muslims, who considered it an attack on the Qur'an (Koran), Muhammad, and the Islamic faith. As a result of demonstrations, India , Pakistan , South Africa , Egypt , and Saudi Arabia banned the work. In 1989 Iran 's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (edict) declaring that Rushdie be put to death.

Although Rushdie offered an apology and a formal statement of his adherence to Islam, the fatwa was not lifted, and he remained in hiding until late 1991, when he began to make isolated and unscheduled appearances and to allow a few interviews. In 1995, despite the continuance of the death threat, Rushdie began making television appearances, granting more frequent interviews, and giving public readings of his works. The Iranian government eventually backed away from the fatwa, but some religious groups still consider it active.

In 1995 Rushdie's collection of short stories East, West appeared. The Moor's Last Sigh, also published in 1995, is a novel about the last surviving member of a brilliant multiethnic Indian family that traces its lineage to the last Moorish sultan of Granada, Spain. The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Rushdie's first novel set largely in the United States, tackles popular culture and the absence of firm ground.

 

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