Livraria Lello suggests Salman Rushdie

September would be the month in which the World's Most Beautiful Bookshop would receive the acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie. A brutal attack postponed, not canceled, the novelist's visit, but Livraria Lello kept him as Author of the Month in a tribute to his work.

While the author recovers and we await a new date for his visit, our booksellers suggest reading The Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, and Joseph Anton. Three of the most famous works of the writer who has collected several literary awards throughout his career.

The Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Salim Sinai is a Muslim from a wealthy family who was born in Bombay at the exact moment India achieved its independence. His story is linked to the stories of 1000 other children born between midnight of August 15, 1947, and the first hour of the next day, as the protagonist and narrator can communicate telepathically with them. This ability allows him to reconstruct his family's history, and since their trajectory is intertwined with the complex and troubled history of his country, it also allows him to examine the historical and cultural events of India.

The Midnight's Children is nothing less than the story of India in the 20th century, told with the masterful magic realism that is characteristic of the Indian-born author. This, which is Rushdie's second novel, earned him the 1981 Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers Prize in 1993, projecting the writer as one of the best names in contemporary literature.

In 2012, the film was adapted to cinema by director Deepa Mehta in collaboration with the author who, in addition to writing the screenplay, also gave voice to the narrator.

Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie

Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha are two Indian actors who, on the return flight from their trip to India, are victims of a terrorist attack shortly before their arrival in London. Taking refuge in each other, the protagonists survive the explosion and the plane crash, but see their lives completely transformed. Various metamorphoses place the two protagonists on opposite sides in the struggle between good and evil.

Joseph Anton – A Memoir, Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie was forced to live underground, under police protection and constantly moving from house to house. He was asked to choose a pseudonym by which the police could call him, and Joseph Anton came up as a tribute to his favorite writers, Conrad and Chekhov. 

Written with enormous frankness and honesty, it is an exciting, provocative, moving, and absolutely necessary book because it talks, above all, about the fight for freedom of expression.