The Satanic Verses

What it is about

Salman Rushdie begins with two Indian actors falling from an exploded airliner toward England, then follows their improbable survival and transformation through London, Bombay, dreams, revelation, migration, and metamorphosis. The novel uses magical realism, satire, popular culture, and unstable dream sequences to examine divided identity, racial hostility, faith, doubt, authorship, and the painful reinvention demanded of people who cross languages, nations, and selves. Its place here is personal: I want the argument to meet the life I am actually living.

Why I keep it

Rushdie's verses. I wanted to read the book, not the fatwa.

Key ideas

Beside it on the shelf · Literature & Fiction