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Salman Rushdie

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Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library CLASSICS) Hardcover – 21 September 1995

by Salman Rushdie (Author)

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A history of India since independence seen through the eyes of characters born on that independence was granted.

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About the Author

Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels - Luka and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker); Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor's Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House; and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize) - and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published five works of nonfiction - The Jaguar Smile; Imaginary Homelands; Step Across This Line; Joseph Anton; and Languages of Truth - and coedited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1857152174
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Everyman's Library (21 September 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 589 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781857152173
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1857152173
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 kg 50 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.4 x 3.3 x 21 cm
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India
Net Quantity ‏ : ‎ 662.00 Grams
Generic Name ‏ : ‎ Books

Best Sellers Rank: #66,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,246 in Indian Writing (Books)
- #5,350 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
6,331 ratings

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Salman Rushdie

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Sir Salman Rushdie is the author of many novels including Grimus, Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury and Shalimar the Clown. He has also published works of non-fiction including The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz and, as co-editor, The Vintage Book of Short Stories.

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6,331 global ratings

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Customers find the book to be a fantastic reading experience with a gripping narrative that incorporates magical realism throughout. They appreciate its underlying humor and find it enlightening, with one customer describing it as a history novel for the ages. The writing quality receives mixed reviews, with some praising the prose while others find it poor. The book's length is also mixed, with several customers noting it's lengthy.

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Readability Storytelling Wit Enlightened content Grip Writing quality Length Character variety

104 customers mention "Readability"91 positive13 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as interesting and fantastic to read, with one customer noting it's worthy of its worldwide praise.

"Nice story. Worth it. Book condition was good" Read more

"This is a truly good book. I Hugely recommend to any lover of English literature. The impression the novel creates might stay with for a long while." Read more

"Sensational. Lively. Lovely. Yet-pretty-guessable at times...." Read more

"...Though not a must read but worth a try (if you have a lot of patience!!!😛😛)..." Read more

46 customers mention "Storytelling"36 positive10 negative

Customers enjoy the storytelling of the book, particularly its magical realism and historical elements, with one customer noting how it skillfully blends history with literary style.

"Nice story. Worth it. Book condition was good" Read more

"...is prevaricating and unnecessary, this is forgivable given the stunning plot, and maybe the purpose was to let the reader get accustomed to the..." Read more

"...This book depicts the India before, that suffered to give us this liberation." Read more

"...There are elements of history, which are combined with (un)related magical events occurring in the life of the protagonist...." Read more

7 customers mention "Wit"7 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's wit, noting its underlying humor and flowery language, with one customer describing it as almost poetic.

"...fact that while the story might not grip everybody, it was written with a lot of thought and love...." Read more

"...Salman Rushdie's writing is magnificent with dazzling drops of wit and vitality...." Read more

"...deliberate false steps and allegorical insinuations coupled with immensely funny and brilliant prose...." Read more

"...Touch of humor even to possible painful situations makes it more interesting...." Read more

5 customers mention "Enlightened content"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enlightening, with one mentioning how it captures interest and another noting how it chutnifies the mind.

"Worthy of it's worldwide praise and acclamation!!! This book is everything and more-fiction resembling real life in ways more than one!..." Read more

"It capures ur interest ...but found out a little boring in middle. .as discribes everything with a lengthy detail ...it's sometimes exausting ..." Read more

"...A good read and informative." Read more

"Brilliant. Superb. Enlightening. Experimental" Read more

4 customers mention "Grip"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book gripping.

"...The story moves at an eerily slow pace but curiously enough also manages to grip you...." Read more

"...The result is a gripping, unputdownable story...." Read more

"Difficult to read but with the effort. Gripping, witty. Smart read. Rushdie is just brilliant." Read more

"Read it if you have an outstanding grip im English Literature...." Read more

74 customers mention "Writing quality"33 positive41 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing quality of the book, with some praising its beauty and considering it a masterpiece of literature, while others find the pages not nice and the overall quality poor.

"...goes on for about 30 years after he was born and Salman has beautifully shown India in all its true glory before she was freed from the clutches of..." Read more

"...The book started very promisingly, but Rushdie's English was very heavy for me...." Read more

"Very original depiction of an India that was not known to my generation. We are the children of an India after economic liberation...." Read more

"This winner of the "Booker of Bookers" is a difficult book to read, and a far more difficult one to rate...." Read more

9 customers mention "Length"3 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's length, with several finding it a bit lengthy.

"...As mentioned, it is a long read. But at no moment did I feel like it was too much. No sir. I still want more of it...." Read more

"Pretty long book!!! Saleem's story entwined with that if new born India is a reavealing one historically and also on individual basis...." Read more

"...But the book failed to impress at all levels. Found it too long and dragging with its blend of active-passive, literal-metaphorical combinations...." Read more

"...Wonderful writing. A tad lengthy and stretched but that's the beauty of the book. Highly recommended." Read more

3 customers mention "Character variety"0 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed feelings about the character variety in the book.

"...Characters are very close and similar to each other. But it sticks you to the book until the end...." Read more

"Despite the characters being larger than life,almost caricatures it makes for very interesting reading on account of very vivid desriptions and..." Read more

"I found the novel to highbrow, so many characters, jumping to different time zones,I found it difficult to follow the story...." Read more

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Satabdi Nandi
Worth it
Reviewed in India on 2 April 2025
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Nice story. Worth it. Book condition was good

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Sravanthi Kakarla
a terrible mix-up at birth ensures that Shiva
Reviewed in India on 21 March 2017
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Set in the backdrop of the India during the partition, this book is no page turner. The story moves at an eerily slow pace but curiously enough also manages to grip you.

Born at precisely the stroke of midnight, Saleem’s fate is inadvertently connected to the fate of the country. Saleem’s childhood has been exaggerated to the extent that a connection was established between anything significant happening with India post-independence in 1947. The author has used magical realism throughout the story and generously so. But, this is important to establish a connection between the twins, the protagonist Saleem and his twin sister India. Salman paints a meticulously realistic picture of the imaginary world he has created. While the connection with the fate of the country is one part of the story, his ability to connect telepathically with all the other children who were born in the country on the day India became free on August 15th, 1947 is the other parallel counterpart. That is not all, a terrible mix-up at birth ensures that Shiva, Saleem’s alter ego, was also born at precisely the stroke of midnight to have very different a perspective on just about anything from Saleem

The citations, duplexity and the figurations used throughout the novel have been nothing short of mesmerizing.

It all begins 30 years before Saleem was born and goes on for about 30 years after he was born and Salman has beautifully shown India in all its true glory before she was freed from the clutches of the Britishers and after she became free, independent at the stroke of midnight in 1947. The novel is written from the point of view of Saleem who from the beginning bleats about not having enough time to tell his story. While the rough narrative structure illustrates this, Saleem is a man who does not come to the point. He loves beating around the bush and had it not been for this horrible habit, the story would have lost its element of surprise. The novel has been structured to ensure that the events that are described in the book happen at the right time and never otherwise. While Saleem, in his anxiety to get his story across, in the short time he has, haphazardly narrates his story, the upside is you don’t entirely lose out on the plot. To put this in Saleem’s words,

“This is the not what I had planned; but perhaps the story you finish is never the one you begin.”

I’ll admit that the slow pace was a total demotivation to finish the book, but I’m glad I stuck on. While the prose is prevaricating and unnecessary, this is forgivable given the stunning plot, and maybe the purpose was to let the reader get accustomed to the unrushed pace of the novel.

This was an attempt by Salman to put his childhood and his tryst with the India with no other purpose but to provide his perspective regarding the history of the nation and to intensify the fact that while the story might not grip everybody, it was written with a lot of thought and love. To put it simply and taking this quote from the book,

“One day, perhaps, the world may taste the pickles of history. They may be too strong for some palates, their smell may be overpowering, tears may rise to eyes; I hope nevertheless that it will be possible to say of them that they possess the authentic taste of truth… that they are, despite everything, acts of love”

“There are as many versions of India as the Indians.” While, the intense characters with their atypical perspectives testify that, “Unity does survive in diversity.” You cannot but pause and appreciate the beauty with which Salman manages to take the readers to various places across the Indian sub-continent. He is a true magician waving his wand, which defies time and place to enchants its readers into a new imaginary world.

Overall, to conclude, while the snail-pace prose requires time and attention, the fruit borne in the form of the gripping story is very, very sweet.

Final Verdict: Take your time and read this book. If not for the intense plot and the deep characters, Read this to watch Salman play beautifully with words and create magic.

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23 people found this helpful

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Nilanjana
Masterpiece-no other word can describe this book
Reviewed in India on 10 November 2024
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This is a truly good book. I Hugely recommend to any lover of English literature. The impression the novel creates might stay with for a long while.

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Samit Ghosh
A history novel for the ages
Reviewed in India on 2 February 2025
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Very original depiction of an India that was not known to my generation. We are the children of an India after economic liberation. This book depicts the India before, that suffered to give us this liberation.

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shatakshi
Did not order a second hand book.
Reviewed in India on 9 October 2022
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I don't understand, I ordered a first hand book yet all I see is a second hand book with a broken bind and and torn apart cover. Pages and print is fine but certainly did not order a second hand book for a full price.

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shatakshi

Did not order a second hand book.

Reviewed in India on 9 October 2022
I don't understand, I ordered a first hand book yet all I see is a second hand book with a broken bind and and torn apart cover. Pages and print is fine but certainly did not order a second hand book for a full price.

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Garg Ankit
A sensational long read
Reviewed in India on 16 April 2019
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Sensational. Lively. Lovely. Yet-pretty-guessable at times.

The above words sum up what I think about Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. The storyline is brilliantly correlated with India and its history as a nation. Time-and-again, the author points out all the possible correlations among the two, which makes the prose lengthy and repetitive. But is repetition a bad thing always? No sir, it is not. It can be deployed as a powerful tool to make your point, and that is exactly how the author has used it here in my opinion.

There are elements of history, which are combined with (un)related magical events occurring in the life of the protagonist. The result is a gripping, unputdownable story. My only concern is with the fact that the plot is not strong enough to keep the reader guessing at all times.

As mentioned, it is a long read. But at no moment did I feel like it was too much. No sir. I still want more of it.

Verdict: Highly recommended.

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8 people found this helpful

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GARGI SRIVASTAVA
Sweetly magical ❤️😍💕
Reviewed in India on 7 April 2020
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Pretty long book!!! Saleem's story entwined with that if new born India is a reavealing one historically and also on individual basis. Through the story we get an idea of how the major and minor decisions at the time affected people individually. The picturesque scenes of Kashmir are beautifully described and it almost comes alive in front of us. The whole book is very beautifully written properly winding up history and magic. Some parts of the book are written very craftily making it difficult to understand a bit. Getting into the flow of Rushdie's writing is also a bit of a task. Other than that the book achieves whatever it wanted to and it gave a proper expected ending which leaves a feeling of satisfaction. Though not a must read but worth a try (if you have a lot of patience!!!😛😛)

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2 people found this helpful

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FolkFacadeKate
A DIFFERENT Narration!!
Reviewed in India on 2 July 2022
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If you have heard stories from your grandparents about their youth that was spent in India , the wars , emergency , streets full of suprises , towns(since cities were VERY few) I think one can cherish this book. I had to ask my nana about the details about the society then (mostly) thread my thoughts and align it with that said in the book ... And my 2-3weeks of reading this book was the best experience. Wanted to know all the unknowns of my country of which I wasn't a part then! HIStory and rushdie sirs way of connecting it with Saleem sina's life (the irony ) with every major events of his life must be understood and could be, if you know what happened precisely, mostly learnt from those who have seen, heard and experienced the same in that time ..

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purplebass
Unpredictable book about different topics
Reviewed in Italy on 29 June 2020
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To say I've devoured this book would be a lie, so I'll just state the truth.
It took me two weeks to finish it, and this is all due to the enormity, the greatness, the ever expanding world of this book. There are longer books in literature, yes, but this book, in its almost 650 pages, manages to give several points of discussions about a different variety of topics.

The story, which starts from the end like most magic realist books, is meant to be the autobiography of Saleem Sinai. Saleem tells us who he is, as every respectable biography does, and he says that his birthday is important because he was born on August 15th, 1947, on the stroke of midnight, right when India gained its Independence from the British rule. Now he's about to turn 31, but the clock is ticking, and he needs to tell his story before he forgets and it is lost forever.

In a meta-narration where Saleem, our narrator, tells us about the past but also comments in the present about what happened in a precise moment, we are thrown back into pre-Independence India as Saleem starts the story by recounting his grandfather's Aadam Aziz story of how he met his grandma, in 1915, Kashmir. The place is not casual at all, because Kashmir will be one of the most reclaimed territories by both India and Pakistan after the Partition, and it's not casual everything started there, in that paradise. It's not a coincidence the grandfather is called "Aadam".

It all starts from a perforated sheet where Aadam sees bits of his future wife Naseem. The perforated sheet, as well as the theme of holes in general, is recurring in this book, and greatly connects the beginning and the end that you can't fail to see the parallels, the mirrors.

In this story, nothing is casual, especially the fact that Saleem was born on midnight. He, and the other children born at midnight of the same day, possessed great powers. But there are secrets behind Saleem's birth, secrets that will make or break relationships, obsessions, love and hatred. You know what they say, the more powerful you are, the more feared you will be.

I wish I could say more than this, but I don't want to spoil anything to you, because this book really manages to shock you until the very end. The writing is flowing, fresh, you never get annoyed because you want to know how did that happen, what will be of this or that character. The story may seem all over the place because Saleem starts retracing his origins back to his grandfather, but it isn't at all. It is a story full of history, hybridity, identity, religion, politics... it is a world in its own right, with tragic moments made less sad by the grotesque, by the irony and the sarcasm Rushdie is able to deliver majestically.

It isn't just Saleem's story, it is a story of a country divided, partitioned. A country that is looking for a mother, for a father, someone to guide them, to mend the cracks. But Saleem knows that it's impossible, because there are cracks - like the one in the perforated sheet - that you can't mend, that you won't be able to mend, especially if your fate is doomed.

Rushdie is a British author but he is also Indian, which mean this novel also deals with the problem of hybridity, because Saleem also moves to different places in his life.

I could say more but I think you should read for yourself the waste number of topics that this book discusses, because they can't be narrowed down. I think lovers of magic realism but also fantasy will like this book.

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pamela
good book
Reviewed in Australia on 3 October 2023
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good book

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Dr. W
Certainly NOT Harry Potter for readers!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 February 2011
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This review essentially deals with the author Salman Rushdie rather than this book, because after all Midnight's Children is the 'Booker of Bookers', what more can one add? - except to state that if you are preoccupied with 'magic' then you have spectacularly missed the point of this book. The allegorical nature of its construction, its metaphors and its historical dramas are what is important here; its allusions and not any apparent wizardry. As my title said, this most certainly is not Harry Potter for readers and I wish reviewers would stop wasting their words on that topic and instead re-read and re-examine the core themes, dramas and constructs of what is undoubtedly one of the greatest books ever written.

Salman Rushdie is to Literature, what George W. Bush was to American politics. Seldom has history witnessed individuals who possess such an ability to thoroughly polarize their respective audiences. Love or loathe, there can be nothing in between. For reference, my feet are firmly on the 'love' side of the divide.

In continuum, one thing I personally find fascinating about Rushdie is his ability to alienate people in equal numbers to those he utterly enthralls. As per the aforementioned correlation there are those that he utterly repulses and repels and that fascinates me. What is the reason for this? It is fair to say that, that which we are able to 'read' (and by read I mean in the Mortimer Aldler sense of the word), is a direct reflection of our own intellect or lack thereof, and I sincerely believe that this is one reason why Rushdie irritates so many people. He irritates people because most people are not that bright and are not really 'readers'; not actually literate per se. What I mean by that last comment is that people no longer seem able to concentrate on a book (or much else besides television), or to dig for deeper meaning; to read between the lines and to grasp allegory and metaphorical allusions. In today's world of get-rich-quick everyone wants to be Eric Clapton but no one wants to put in the hours, henceforth people buy 'Guitar Hero'. Life is not a game of 'Guitar Hero'.

It's interesting to draw parallels between Rushdie and another English author, Stephen Fry. Fry is also an intellectual heavyweight with a wonderfully sharp and agile brain and an extensive vocabulary. Unlike Rushdie, however, Fry is big and cuddly, has round edges and not sharp corners and I think that is one reason why the public take to him more easily. Besides which he is also flawed and slightly imperfect; he reaches out to us where Rushdie pulls away. To Fry's non-threatening modelling-clay persona Rushdie is perfect, unforgiving and cold, a statuesque individual carved from the hardest granite. One can't also help but feel that perhaps Rushdie's ethnicity rubs people up the wrong way, or is that just a cheap shot on my part and merely an easy way to find an answer to my question? One cannot help but wonder, though, if it isn't hard for those outside the liberal Literary establishment to accept a man of colour is more brilliant, better educated and ore mellifluous than they could ever hope to be. Again, that might just be smoke-and-mirrors, a cheap shot on my behalf, a quick-fix to a more complex quandary.

To return to my second paragraph, I personally adore the fact that I have to read Rushdie with a green highlighter in hand (green is my colour for unknown words). I adore the fact that Rushdie crushes my ego, and belittles my vocabulary. I love the fact he challenges me to become a better reader to widen my vocabulary. I love the fact that Cambridge-educated Rushdie has a higher intellect than I, because he is SUPPOSED to have. An author (like any artiste) should ideally not be an everyman, should not be a Stephen King or a Jeffery Archer. Authors of Literature should shoulder the responsibility of raising the bar and challenging our collective consciousness, and Rushdie relishes that opportunity and performs that rôle admirably, a perfect casting.

If you don't get the beauty and elegance of this book, then you simply have not understood it and I sincerely urge you re-read it, preferably with a green highlighter in hand!

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Amazon Customer
5*
Reviewed in Spain on 20 January 2025
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Perfeito

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Daniyar
Great
Reviewed in Canada on 21 July 2023
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A bit boring but still great

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Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library CLASSICS) Hardcover – 21 September 1995

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A magnificent novel

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5.0 out of 5 stars Unpredictable book about different topics

5.0 out of 5 stars good book

5.0 out of 5 stars Certainly NOT Harry Potter for readers!

5.0 out of 5 stars 5*

5.0 out of 5 stars Great

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Unpredictable book about different topics

good book

Certainly NOT Harry Potter for readers!

5*

Great