Book summary

Rushdie's controversial bestseller, which earned him a sentence of death from the Islamic hierarchy of Iran, is a magical realist fantasy that examines questions of identity and belief. Two survivors of an airplane crash, Saladin and Gibreel, are transformed from ordinary citizens and public figures into personifications of Good and Evil, complete with horns, haloes, and holy wars. Sardonic and bleak at the same time, THE SATANIC VERSES is a striking parable of faith and doubt in the postmodern world.

Media reviews

"Abudant in enchanting narratives and amazingly peopled, 'The Satanic Verses' is both a philosophy and an Arabian nights entertainment. What wit, what real warmth in Rushdies's thousand-eyed perceptions of the inferno within us and the vainglory of our aspirations! His ambitions are huge, and his creativity triumphantly matches them."