The Satanic Verses

Novel by Salman Rushdie. First published in 1988.

Vague Summary without Spoilers

After a terrorist bomb explodes in an airplane, Saladin Chamcha and Gibreel Farishta are falling down, down, down. And land in England. The Satanic Verses deals with questions of identity, hybridity, belief and disbelief.

Salman Rushdie in Big Trouble

Rushdie was accused of blasphemy and of insulting the prophet Muhammad. Muslim groups in the UK and worldwide arranged book burning events. Furthermore, Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at that time, proclaimed a fatwā condoning and actively approving of a possible execution of the author on 14 February 1989. Nevertheless, “95% of what has been written about the book in India has been by those who have not read it” (Smale 28). The Satanic Verses was banned in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.

Bibliography

Blake, Andrew. Salman Rushdie: A Beginner’s Guide. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2001.

Cundy, Catherine. Salman Rushdie. Manchester: MUP, 1996.

Erickson, John. Islam and Postcolonial Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Grant, Damian. Salman Rushdie. Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers, 1999.

Smale, David. Salman Rushdie. Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.