A set of six first-edition fiction and non-fiction books by Salman Rushdie. 5 signed and 1 unsigned [UK, 1981-2010]
a) Salman Rushdie, Midnight Children, London: Jonathan Cape, 1981, first edition
[10], 11-446, [2] pp; blue cloth with gold lettering on the spine and fine dust wrapper
24.5 x 16 cm
This is the author's second novel and one of only 2500 copies printed in this edition. The American edition preceded this slightly because of a printer's strike in the UK.
Midnight's Children chronicles modern India through the lives of the one thousand and one children born within the country's first hour of independence on August 15, 1947. "An extraordinary novel...one of the most important to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation" (Robert Towers, The New York Times Book Review). Listed by Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century.
b) Salman Rushdie, Shame, London: Jonathan Cape, 1983, first edition
[10], 11-287, [1] pp.; black cloth with gold lettering on the spine and fine dust wrapper. With a family tree of the characters. Rushdie’s third novel, short listed for the Booker Prize.
22.5 x 14.5 cm
Signed by the author on the title page.
In this novel Salman Rushdie masterfully combines history, art, language, politics, and religion. It is a political satire, and was a following novel to Rushdie's award winning 'Midnight's Children'.
To this work, Rushdie portrays the lives of Iskander Harappa, who is often assumed to be Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and General Raza Hyder, sometimes assumed to be General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. It deals with their relationship and takes place in the fictitious town called 'Q' which is based on Quetta, Pakistan.
Shortlisted for the 1983 Booker Prize. This work also won the French Prix du Meilleur Libre Etranger.
c) Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, London: Granta books in association with Penguin books, 1990, first edition
[14], 15-218, [2] pp.; black cloth with silver lettering on the spine and fine dust wrapper
22.5 x 14 cm
Signed by the author on the title page.
A professional storyteller, the Shah of Blah, loses his gift of the gab and his son sets out to restore it to him. This is a delightful fairy tale that both comments on the writer's extraordinary circumstances and provides a child's insight into the nature of art.
d) Salman Rushdie, The Moore's Last Sigh, London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, first edition
[12], 3-437 pp.; black cloth with gold lettering on the spine and fine dust wrapper
24 x 16 cm
Signed by the author on the title page.. First edition of this work which TIME Magazine named book of the year.
Salman Rushdie combines a ferociously witty family saga with a surreally imagined and sometimes blasphemous chronicle of modern India and flavors the mixture with peppery soliloquies on art, ethnicity, religious fanaticism, and the terrifying power of love. Moraes "Moor" Zogoiby, the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinese spice merchants and crime lords, is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile. As he travels a route that takes him from India to Spain, he leaves behind a tale of mad passions and volcanic family hatreds, of titanic matriarchs and their mesmerized offspring, of premature deaths and curses that strike beyond the grave.
e) Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown, London: Jonathan Cape, 2005, first edition
[13], 4-398, [12] pp.; black cloth with gold lettering on the spine and fine dust wrapper
24 x 16 cm
Signed by the author on the title page.
The story of the dead man, his killer and his daughter; the story of the violent termination of an extraordinary life stretching from Nazi-occupied Strasbourg to Hollywood via India, Kashmir, and many of the world's most dangerous places.
f) Salman Rushdie, Luka and the Fire of Life, London: Jonathan Cape, 2010, first edition
[8], 1-216, [4] pp.; maroon cloth with gold lettering on the spine and fine dust wrapper
22.5 x 14 cm
Signed by the author on the title page.
On a beautiful starry night in the city of Kahani in the land of Alifbay a terrible thing happened: twelve-year-old Luka's storyteller father, Rashid, fell suddenly and inexplicably into a sleep so deep that nothing and no one could rouse him. To save him from slipping away entirely, Luka must embark on a journey through the Magic World, encountering a slew of phantasmagorical obstacles along the way, to steal the Fire of Life, a seemingly impossible and exceedingly dangerous task.
With Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie proved that he is one of the best contemporary writers of fables, and it proved to be one of his most popular books with readers of all ages. While Haroun was written as a gift for his first son, Luka and the Fire of Life, the story of Haroun's younger brother, is a gift for his second son on his twelfth birthday. Lyrical, rich with word-play, and with the narrative tension of the classic quest stories, this is Salman Rushdie at his very best.
(Set of six)