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The Satanic Verses
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
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On February 14, 1989, Valentine's Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been "sentenced to death" by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being "against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran". So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of a police protection team.
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Saleem Sinai is born on the stroke of midnight on 14th-15th August 1947, at the exact moment that India and Pakistan become separate, independent nations. From that moment on, his fate is mysteriously handcuffed to the history of his country. But Saleem's story starts almost 30 years earlier, when his grandfather, Dr Aadam Aziz, falls in love with a woman concealed behind a perforated sheet. That pivotal moment in Kashmir in 1919 sparks a series of bizarre events that will lead to the birth of a boy with an extraordinary destiny.
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Languages of Truth
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Salman Rushdie is celebrated as “a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker), illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time.
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A Hitch in Time
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Anthologized here for the first time, A HITCH IN TIME is a choice selection of Christopher Hitchens’s finest reviews, diary entries and essays—along with a smattering of ferocious letters. Familiar bêtes noires—Kennedy, Nixon, Kissinger, Clinton—rub shoulders with lesser-known preoccupations: P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Margaret and, magisterially, Isaiah Berlin. A HITCH IN TIME is a banquet of entertaining stories ranging from his thoughts on Salman Rushdie to being spanked by Margaret Thatcher in The House of Lords and the night he took his son to the Oscars.
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Midnight's Children
- Written by: Salman Rushdie
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Salman Rushdie holds the literary world in awe with a jaw-dropping catalog of critically acclaimed novels that have made him one of the world's most celebrated authors. Winner of the prestigious Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children tells the story of Saleem Sinai, born on the stroke of India's independence.
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Absolutely awful!!!
- By DR NICHLAS SLADEN-DEW on 2018-08-24
Written by: Salman Rushdie
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The Enchantress of Florence
- Written by: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the imperial capital of the Mughal Empire, a traveler arrives at the court of Emperor Akbar. The traveler, Mogor dell'Amore, has a tale to tell, and as the words flow out of him, the tale's rich tapestry of power and desire begins to take on a life of its own.
Written by: Salman Rushdie
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Joseph Anton
- A Memoir
- Written by: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor, Salman Rushdie
- Length: 27 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 14, 1989, Valentine's Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been "sentenced to death" by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being "against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran". So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of a police protection team.
Written by: Salman Rushdie
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Midnight's Children
- BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation
- Written by: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Nikesh Patel, Meera Syal, Anneika Rose, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Saleem Sinai is born on the stroke of midnight on 14th-15th August 1947, at the exact moment that India and Pakistan become separate, independent nations. From that moment on, his fate is mysteriously handcuffed to the history of his country. But Saleem's story starts almost 30 years earlier, when his grandfather, Dr Aadam Aziz, falls in love with a woman concealed behind a perforated sheet. That pivotal moment in Kashmir in 1919 sparks a series of bizarre events that will lead to the birth of a boy with an extraordinary destiny.
Written by: Salman Rushdie
-
Languages of Truth
- Essays 2003-2020
- Written by: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Raj Ghatak, Salman Rushdie
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salman Rushdie is celebrated as “a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker), illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time.
Written by: Salman Rushdie
-
A Hitch in Time
- Reflections Ready for Reconsideration
- Written by: Christopher Hitchens, James Wolcott - introduction
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills, James Wolcott
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anthologized here for the first time, A HITCH IN TIME is a choice selection of Christopher Hitchens’s finest reviews, diary entries and essays—along with a smattering of ferocious letters. Familiar bêtes noires—Kennedy, Nixon, Kissinger, Clinton—rub shoulders with lesser-known preoccupations: P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Margaret and, magisterially, Isaiah Berlin. A HITCH IN TIME is a banquet of entertaining stories ranging from his thoughts on Salman Rushdie to being spanked by Margaret Thatcher in The House of Lords and the night he took his son to the Oscars.
Written by: Christopher Hitchens, and others
Publisher's Summary
Inextricably linked with the fatwa called against its author in the wake of the novel’s publication, The Satanic Verses is, beyond that, a rich showcase for Salman Rushdie’s comic sensibilities, cultural observations, and unparalleled mastery of language. The tale of an Indian film star and a Bombay expatriate, Rushdie’s masterpiece was deservedly honored with the Whitbread Prize.
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.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Matt
- 2019-03-26
Need to listen few times
At times it was a bit confusing with all the characters, I’ll definitely need to listen to it again.
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2 people found this helpful
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More controversy than necessary…
The book is great, although hard to follow unless you’re paying close attention. I think it’s best to listen when falling asleep and let the words create images in your mind, the “magical realism” is like a story that could happen in real life but the descriptions are so wild that it’s dream like. The controversy seems unwarranted, as it’s not determined to criticize Islam (although you can see why a Muslim might find it offensive at times) it’s about two Indian muslims falling to their deaths from a plane, hijacked by SIKH terrorists, not Muslim terrorists. It’s about religion, love, hate, family relationships and the contrast between Bombay life vs London life. It’s a complex book so be warned, worth it though.
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- Shaghayegh Ghadery
- 2023-09-30
absolutely amazing!
both story and performance are amazing. highly recommended to read and listen at the same time.
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-08-21
Best reader yet.
I have listened to a number of audio books and the narrator here is the best one yet by far. amazing story.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-02-08
book drags on and never makes a point.
maybe I'm just missing something, but it seems like these surreal fantasy story lines that are happening in this book are just trite and mundane. I finished the whole novel and I really didn't get any enjoyment out of it. it has some slightly interesting story lines that I feel aren't fully explored and instead just end up being abandoned.
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- peter wing
- 2018-11-24
My second go at this classic.
I cannot now remember why I stopped reading this book some 20 years ago - I do remember that it seemed very wordy and I set it aside.
My book club selected it this fall so I tried the audiobook, beautifully brought to life by Sam Dastor. Parts were still challenging for me but I hugely enjoyed its rich prose and the humour of the characters. Strongly recommended.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Hermes
- 2019-07-13
Mohammed and a bunch of other crazy charcters
I bought this to hear the "high-flying cranes'" quote. This pre-Islamic goddess part of the Quran is mentioned in the book, but is certainly not the best part. Better is the retelling of numerous episodes in the life of the warlord-prophet who for some reason is transparently renamed 'Mahoond' even though those episodes are *obviously* about the famous personage. Likewise, central locations - Mecca and the Ka'ab are renamed. Better are the Indian and British of Indian descent characters in their upper middle class lives . Plus I liked the modern character who turned into Pan. Also South Asians dealing with racism in Britain (were the cops really so evil?) However, my absolute favourite part was the lengthy bits about 'hijab' (curtain), a brothel where the prostitutes took on the names of Mohammed's wives as a kind of fantasy of the powerless. Mohammed is portayed during the Meccan period sympathetically, with affection really, but as he becomes meglomaniac his own policies mock him. I do not know the Quran, Sira (biography of Mohammed) or Hadith well enough to know whether this is Islamic history or the author's imagination, but many sound familiar (such as the poet 'Baal' satirizing him and Mohammed's teen wife Ayesha being accused of impropriety.
The narrator is excellent when doing Indian and British accents, not bad at Caribbean, but horrible at most others, especially the totally unconvincing Canadian one and the American accent somehow bugged me.
The weakest part for me though wasn't the story being all over the place - Arabian peninsula and England, the moving back and forth from the seventh century and current (well late 19880s presumably). In fact I liked the 'two stories in one'. But the story just didn't grab me compared to say Faulkner or Robbins.
Rushdie's writing style is clever. Yet I am not sure I really like the story itself. I will try one of his other books such as 'Midnight's Children' which I saw as a TV (BBC?) version and DID like the content - a story set in the partition.
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3 people found this helpful
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- The Lichmeister
- 2019-01-30
One for the Ages
This is definitely one for the Ages! The narrator really brings the characters to life.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rena
- 2022-09-06
Could Not Relate
After 6 hours of listening, I gave up. I struggled to figure out why because the writer is witty using language and descriptives I understood. What I think got me to stop was too much of his culture coming through and the lofty intellectual writing style- it left me both struggling to continue and bored at the same time. I like a subject I can relate to written in an engaging style that is down to earth. I haven’t read any of his other books; maybe they are more relatable. My hunch however is that writers from another culture can’t help but have their writing influenced by their background.
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- Evangaline
- 2023-06-28
Very Challenging Read
I have read a few of Salman Rushdie's books and enjoyed them. I admit that the main reason for reading this one is out of curiosity due to the controversy. Maybe this is not a good motive. I really had to force myself to try to get through this but had to give up. I don't usually do this but it became a chore to continue.
It's not that I objected to what the author was saying. I actually feel bad that the author has had to endure all that has happened to him as a result of writing this, but I just could not connect to it. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I had to get a character guide to help plow through this surrealistic tome. I will read other books by Rushdie, but this one is just a no go for me.
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