One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, "The Satanic Verses" is Salman Rushdie's best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, "The Satanic Verses "is a key work of our times.
Reviews
"A masterpiece."--"The Sunday Times" "A staggering achievement, brilliantly enjoyable."--Nadine Gordimer "[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths."--Dan Cryer, "Newsday" "Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," Voltaire's "Candide," Sterne's "Tristram Shandy . . ." Salman Rushdie, it seems to me, is very much a latter-day member of their company."--"The New York Times Book Review" "An exhilarating, populous, loquacious, sometimes hilarious, extraordinary novel. A rollercoaster ride over a vast landscape of the imagination."--Angela Carter, "The Guardian"" "