Items related to Midnight's Children

Rushdie, Salman Midnight's Children ISBN 13: 9780099578512

Midnight's Children - Softcover

 
9780099578512: Midnight's Children
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously 'handcuffed to history' by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent - and whose privilege and curse it is to be both master and victims of their times. Through Saleem's gifts - inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of smell - we are drawn into a fascinating family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of the 20th century.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Anyone who has spent time in the developing world will know that one of Bombay's claims to fame is the enormous film industry that churns out hundreds of musical fantasies each year. The other, of course, is native son Salman Rushdie--less prolific, perhaps than Bollywood, but in his own way just as fantastical. Though Rushdie's novels lack the requisite six musical numbers that punctuate every Bombay talkie, they often share basic plot points with their cinematic counterparts. Take, for example, his 1980 Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children: two children born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947--the moment at which India became an independent nation--are switched in the hospital. The infant scion of a wealthy Muslim family is sent to be raised in a Hindu tenement, while the legitimate heir to such squalor ends up establishing squatters' rights to his unlucky hospital mate's luxurious bassinet. Switched babies are standard fare for a Hindi film, and one can't help but feel that Rushdie's world-view--and certainly his sense of the fantastical--has been shaped by the films of his childhood. But whereas the movies, while entertaining, are markedly mediocre, Midnight's Children is a masterpiece, brilliant written, wildly unpredictable, hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Rushdie's narrator, Saleem Sinai, is the Hindu child raised by wealthy Muslims. Near the beginning of the novel, he informs us that he is falling apart--literally:

I mean quite simply that I have begun to crack all over like an old jug--that my poor body, singular, unlovely, buffeted by too much history, subjected to drainage above and drainage below, mutilated by doors, brained by spittoons, has started coming apart at the seams. In short, I am literally disintegrating, slowly for the moment, although there are signs of an acceleration.
In light of this unfortunate physical degeneration, Saleem has decided to write his life story, and, incidentally, that of India's, before he crumbles into "(approximately) six hundred and thirty million particles of anonymous, and necessarily oblivious, dust." It seems that within one hour of midnight on India's independence day, 1,001 children were born. All of those children were endowed with special powers: some can travel through time, for example; one can change gender. Saleem's gift is telepathy, and it is via this power that he discovers the truth of his birth: that he is, in fact, the product of the illicit coupling of an Indian mother and an English father, and has usurped another's place. His gift also reveals the identities of all the other children and the fact that it is in his power to gather them for a "midnight parliament" to save the nation. To do so, however, would lay him open to that other child, christened Shiva, who has grown up to be a brutish killer. Saleem's dilemma plays out against the backdrop of the first years of independence: the partition of India and Pakistan, the ascendancy of "The Widow" Indira Gandhi, war, and, eventually, the imposition of martial law.

We've seen this mix of magical thinking and political reality before in the works of Günter Grass and Gabriel García Márquez. What sets Rushdie apart is his mad prose pyrotechnics, the exuberant acrobatics of rhyme and alliteration, pun, wordplay, proper and "Babu" English chasing each other across the page in a dizzying, exhilarating cataract of words. Rushdie can be laugh-out-loud funny, but make no mistake--this is an angry book, and its author's outrage lends his language wings. Midnight's Children is Salman Rushdie's irate, affectionate love song to his native land--not so different from a Bombay talkie, after all. --Alix Wilber

From the Back Cover:
Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other ‘midnight’s children’ all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem’s story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherVintage Books
  • Publication date1995
  • ISBN 10 0099578514
  • ISBN 13 9780099578512
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages448
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780812976533: Midnight's Children: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780812976533
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2006
Softcover

  • 9780099511892: Midnight's Children

    Vintag..., 2008
    Softcover

  • 9780679444626: Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library)

    Everym..., 1995
    Hardcover

  • 9781857152173: Midnight's Children

    Random..., 1995
    Hardcover

  • 9780140132700: Midnight's Children

    Pengui..., 1991
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Rushdie, Salman
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 1377619-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.26
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Salman Rushdie
Published by Vintage Publishing, London (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is destined from birth to be special. For he is one of 1,001 children born in the midnight hour, children who all have special gifts, children with whom Saleem is telepathically linked. But there has been a terrible mix up at birth, and Saleem s life takes some unexpected twists and turns. As he grows up amidst a whirlwind of triumphs and disasters, Saleem must learn the ominous consequences of his gift, for the course of his life is inseparably linked to that of his motherland, and his every act is mirrored and magnified in the events that shape the newborn nation of India. It is a great gift, and a terrible burden. A novel set in 20th century India, whose central character is a man born at the midnight of India's independence. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099578512

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.62
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Salman Rushdie
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Blackwell's
(Oxford, OX, United Kingdom)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780099578512

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.98
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.68
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Rushdie Salman
Published by Random House (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Majestic Books
(Hounslow, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: New. pp. 463. Seller Inventory # 7648262

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.97
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 8.20
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Rushdie, Salman
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Soft Cover Quantity: 1
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099578512

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 21.21
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Salman Rushdie
Published by Vintage Publishing (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Paperback / softback Quantity: 13
Seller:
THE SAINT BOOKSTORE
(Southport, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is destined from birth to be special. For he is one of 1,001 children born in the midnight hour, children who all have special gifts, children with whom Saleem is telepathically linked. Seller Inventory # B9780099578512

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.92
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.29
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Salman Rushdie
Published by Vintage (2006)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Monster Bookshop
(Fleckney, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780099578512-GDR

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.25
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.34
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Salman Rushdie
Published by Vintage (2006)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Revaluation Books
(Exeter, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 672 pages. 7.80x5.04x1.34 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0099578514

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.98
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 12.62
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Salman Rushdie
Published by Vintage Publishing (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Softcover First Edition Quantity: > 20
Seller:

Book Description Condition: New. 1995. 01st Edition. Paperback. Born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is destined from birth to be special. For he is one of 1,001 children born in the midnight hour, children who all have special gifts, children with whom Saleem is telepathically linked. Num Pages: 672 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 199 x 128 x 35. Weight in Grams: 496. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780099578512

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.35
From Ireland to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Rushdie, Salman
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0099578514 ISBN 13: 9780099578512
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Ria Christie Collections
(Uxbridge, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780099578512_new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.65
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 12.59
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book