Rushdie

Rushdie, Salman Rushdie (born 1947 in Bombay, British India) is a British-Indian novelist, essayist, and public intellectual. His novels are noted for their intricate storytelling, blending magical realism, historical detail, and postcolonial themes such as migration, identity, and religious tension.

Midnight's Children (1981) won the Booker Prize and is widely regarded as a landmark of postcolonial literature. Its narrative of India’s transition from British colonial rule to independence helped establish Rushdie as a leading figure in contemporary fiction. The Satanic Verses (1988) sparked a global controversy and led to a fatwa calling for his execution, forcing years of living in hiding and heightened security. The incident drew attention to issues of free expression, blasphemy, and religious extremism.

Rushdie has published numerous other novels, including The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Shalimar the Clown (2005), The Enchantress of Florence (2008), Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015), and Quichotte (2019). He has also written for children, such as Luka and the Fire of Life (2010). His work often scrutinizes intersections of East and West, myth and modernity, and the politics of belief.

Awards and honors include the Booker Prize for Midnight's Children (1981), the Booker of Bookers (1993), and the Golden Booker (2018) for the same novel. He was knighted in 2007 for services to literature. Rushdie remains a vocal advocate for freedom of expression and a prominent voice in discussions of literature, censorship, and cultural hybridity.