Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel, winner of the Booker Prize and later twice voted the Booker of Bookers, is narrated by Saleem Sinai, a boy born at the exact stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the moment India became independent from Britain. Saleem and the other children born in that first hour of the new nation turn out to share strange, telepathic gifts, and their lives become tangled with the history of the subcontinent itself, from Partition through the Indo-Pakistani wars and Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Saleem tells the story from a Bombay pickle factory in middle age, addressing his nurse Padma, digressing constantly, contradicting himself, and folding family secrets, smells, sandalwood boxes, and slum politics into a single sprawling braid. Rushdie's novel did more than almost any other single book to put English-language Indian fiction at the center of world literature.
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What you might want to know about Midnight's Children
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the moment India gains independence. He, and the thousand-odd other children born that hour, share strange gifts and a destiny tied to the new country.
Yes. Midnight's Children won the 1981 Booker Prize. It was later voted Best of the Booker (the best book to win in 25 years) in 1993, and Best of the Booker again in 2008 for the prize's 40th anniversary.
Yes. Midnight's Children blends magical realism, postcolonial history, and Salman Rushdie's signature digressive style. The novel runs around 650 pages. Most readers either embrace the maximalism or set the book aside.
Midnight's Children was written by Salman Rushdie, published in 1981 by Plon.
Midnight's Children is 556 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Midnight's Children takes most readers 8 to 12 hours to finish.
Midnight's Children is a standalone novel by Salman Rushdie, not part of a series.
Midnight's Children is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
