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Salman Rushdie
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Midnight's Children: The iconic Booker-prize winning novel Paperback – 4 July 1995

by Salman Rushdie (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 5,876 ratings
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Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously 'handcuffed to history' by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent - and whose privilege and curse it is to be both master and victims of their times. Through Saleem's gifts - inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of smell - we are drawn into a fascinating family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of the 20th century.
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  1. Print length
    672 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
  4. Publication date
    4 July 1995
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 3.5 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    9780099578512
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099578512
  8. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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  1. To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world. I told you that.
    Highlighted by 575 Kindle readers
  2. India, the new myth – a collective fiction in which anything was possible, a fable rivalled only by the two other mighty fantasies: money and God.
    Highlighted by 535 Kindle readers
  3. I learned: the first lesson of my life: nobody can face the world with his eyes open all the time.
    Highlighted by 332 Kindle readers
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From the brand

Product description

Review

A wonderful, rich and humane novel that is safe to call a classic. ― Guardian

Midnight's Children is also full of such zest for every messy aspect of life that you can't help but feel inspired ― Guardian

Rushdie’s novel took a post-colonial “empire fights back” spirit, and a deep personal understanding of the politics of Indian partition, and exploded them into something teeming with imaginative life… He inhabits a hybrid consciousness, with a telepathic connection to the other children of midnight, and tells its stories for all he is worth. ― Observer

The extraordinary alchemy of Midnight’s Children was its miraculous fusion of the fantastical and the historical. ― Evening Standard

A magical-realist reflection of the issues India faced post-independence including culture, language, religion, and politics… It’s a truly incredible work. ― Verdict

Book Description

'India has produced a great novelist...a master of perpetual storytelling' V.S. Pritchett, New Yorker

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0099578514
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET; 1st edition (4 July 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780099578512
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099578512
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.5 x 19.8 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 5,876 ratings

About the author

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Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

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Sir Salman Rushdie is the author of many novels including Grimus, Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury and Shalimar the Clown. He has also published works of non-fiction including The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz and, as co-editor, The Vintage Book of Short Stories.

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4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
5,876 global ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

pamela
5.0 out of 5 stars good book
Reviewed in Australia on 3 October 2023
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good book
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Louise Russo
4.0 out of 5 stars An imaginative story, artfully told
Reviewed in Australia on 27 March 2016
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I never write reviews, but I was so disappointed when I saw this great book only had a 2 star review rating. It is an imaginative and challenging read. The story is an epic that is artfully told, and one that stays with you for a long time. It is a huge book, but stick with it - the journey is definitely worthwhile.
One person found this helpful
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Miss Aviva Kassel
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant brilliant brilliant
Reviewed in Australia on 6 September 2021
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So grippinf
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Gaye Batey
3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I thought it would be
Reviewed in Australia on 19 May 2014
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The basics of the story are good but Rushdie constantly waffles on about nothing and I got bored with the story. If all the rubbish was edited out it would be a good read but I found it just too hard to follow
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Cells
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyed
Reviewed in Australia on 27 August 2017
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. It's very well written. It is a captivating journey right from the beginning, to the very end!
One person found this helpful
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Jojoma
5.0 out of 5 stars Booker of Booker prize winners
Reviewed in Australia on 22 September 2018
Operatic sur/realism at it best. Not only won the Booker prize from the year published but the best of Booker’s for 25 years. The most amazing writer in the English language...
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4.0 out of 5 stars Instagram Review
Reviewed in Australia on 13 January 2020
I have been wanting to read Salman Rushdie since hearing him speak and it was well worth it. Midnight’s Children is a slow 650-page read and is a wonderful jump into magical realism. Following Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight and at the exact moment of Indian Independence and two generations of his family. Saleem’s coincidental birth imbued him and the other 1000 children born between Midnight and 1am, powers which are used as he grows up to be part of various major historical events. While slow, this book was immense and well worth the effort given.

For more reviews like this, Check out @myhonestbookreview on Instagram
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j cornall
1.0 out of 5 stars Tried to read his earlier books, satanic verses but ...
Reviewed in Australia on 20 October 2015
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Tried to read his earlier books, satanic verses but just can't cut through all the waffle, so much for the jihad, and this is the same, sorry, no finish and no rating.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Daniyar
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Canada on 21 July 2023
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A bit boring but still great
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Aran Joseph Canes
5.0 out of 5 stars A World, An Epic, A History
Reviewed in the United States on 22 April 2023
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Midnight’s Children could be called a not so distant cousin of A Thousand Years of Solitude. It stands on its own, of course, but what I mean is that there is a world, an epic, a history all inscribed within the pages of both novels. Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County would be an American equivalent.

Midnight’s Children is regarded as so essential to Indian literature that South Asian critics regularly describe eras as pre and post Rushdie.

If you haven’t read it, it tells the story of India, from just before Independence into the Indira Gandhi era, through the allegorical fictional events that occur to its protagonist. As a conceit, it’s brilliant —both in terms of originality and execution.

Those who remember or know about this era in Indian history will not be surprised by its cynical tone. Everything from Indian religions to politics to the economy is subject to subtle, and not so subtle, ridicule. Perhaps if Rushdie were to write about India in the twenty first century this would have been a completely different work.

But as Rushdie says, the temptation to write history as we wish and not how it was is simply that—a temptation. The difficult beginnings of the modern Indian state cannot be swept under the proverbial rug.

However, it’s a book worth reading beyond those interested in South Asian studies. The play between the disasters of the hero and the disasters of India actually reach beyond the subcontinent to achieve universal resonance. I personally didn’t like the digs at religion and the dark humor employed in describing mass suffering, but these are matters on which mature readers will differ. Paradoxically, I believe, that as India becomes a richer and more powerful nation, this work describing the trauma of its youth will become only more and more important. It doesn’t need any props from me, but still highly recommended.
27 people found this helpful
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Daniel from Norwich
5.0 out of 5 stars A joy to read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2023
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‘Midnight’s Children’ is a coming-of-age, satirical, farcical, magical realist story, filling more than 600 pages, about India’s transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. The tale is told by its chief protagonist, a telepath named Saleem Sinai, who recounts his life-story and the history of post-colonial India to his wife.

Although Saleem’s reflections are set in the context of historical events, the details contain factual errors and suspect claims. He asserts the veracity of all that he says, not because it is accurate, but because he remembers it that way.

‘I told you the truth,’ I say yet again, ‘Memory’s truth, because memory has its own special kind. It selects, eliminates, alters, exaggerates, minimizes, glorifies, and vilifies also; but in the end it creates its own reality, its heterogeneous but usually coherent versions of events; and no sane human being ever trusts someone else’s version more than his own.’

Saleem is born at midnight on 15th August 1947, India’s first Independence Day. He discovers that all children born between midnight and 1 a.m. on that date in India have special powers too. One of these children, Shiva, born with the abilities of a matchless warrior, is switched at birth with Saleem. As a consequence, Saleem is raised by prosperous parents in Bombay, while his future enemy, Shiva, is raised in poverty.

Using his telepathic powers, Saleem assembles a ‘Midnight’s Children Conference’ bringing the gifted children together, to see and hear them, to connect with each other. He joins them ‘every midnight, and only at midnight, at an hour dedicated to miracles.’

Pakistan and Bangladesh feature in the novel, but it is predominantly set in India. Rushdie, like Saleem, was raised in Bombay. He presents a Bombay teeming with people, hidden treasures, diversity and a furious energy. His writing mirrors Bombay; even Saleem’s story has to fight its way through an overcrowded manuscript of secondary events.

‘Midnight’s Children’ received prodigious critical and popular acclaim upon its publication in 1981 and continues to be lauded and studied more than forty years later. This capacious and grand novel, deeply-rooted in history, is a joy to read. Its florid descriptions, humour and darkness, peppered with untranslated Indian words, will keep you turning each of its many, many pages.
5 people found this helpful
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Its me. Meenakshi
5.0 out of 5 stars A good and quality purchase
Reviewed in India on 10 June 2023
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The media could not be loaded.
 Its a 647-paged book but owing to its size, the handling is pretty good. Don't expect it to be as light-weighted as Penguin books (not that its too heavy but Penguin books are comparably more lighter that this publisher). I've no complaints regarding the paperback as well as the quality of the font and paper. Overall, its a great purchase.
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patsy
5.0 out of 5 stars Escrita con ingenio mágico
Reviewed in Mexico on 14 January 2021
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Rushdie es un genio! Esta novela es un paralelo a la independencia de la India. El más puro realismo mágico, verdaderamente se goza!
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