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Cover of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children

  • 580 pages · about 10 hours
  • First published 1981
  • 86 editions

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1 About this book

Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by author Salman Rushdie. It portrays India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and the partition of India. It is considered an example of postcolonial, postmodern, and magical realist literature. The story is told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, and is set in the context of actual historical events. The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive.

Midnight's Children won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels". It was also added to the list of Great Books of the 20th Century, published by Penguin Books.

Good for readers who want: literary fiction, magical realism, magic, and a long read.

  • Literary fiction
  • Magical Realism
  • Magic
  • India
  • Telepathy
  • Epic literature
  • Epic fiction
  • Novel

2 About Salman Rushdie

Born 1947

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations. His novels are typically set on the Indian subcontinent, feature an Indian protagonist, and/or portray Indian familial relationships.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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