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Midnight's Children
- ASIN : 0099582074
- Publisher : RHUK; Media tie-in edition (3 January 2013); Vintage
- Language : English
- Paperback : 672 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780099582076
- ISBN-13 : 978-0099582076
- Item Weight : 460 g
- Dimensions : 12.9 x 3.6 x 19.8 cm
Midnight’s Children is a novel by Salman Rushdie. It deals with India’s change from British rule to independence and touches upon the themes of the partition of British India.
'Midnight’s Children’ by the renowned author Sulman Rushdie is an epic novel that opens up with a child being born at midnight on 15th August, 1947, just at a time when India is achieving Independence from centuries of foreign British colonial rule. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. 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.
He has telepathic powers, and soon discovers that all children born at midnight have similar powers. Saleem assembles a Midnight Children's Conference to reflect on the issues India faced in its early statehood. As a telepathic conduit, Saleem brings hundreds of geographically disparate children into contact and discovers their gifts. The magical realism in the novel examines liberalism and recalls indigenous Indian culture. It runs headlong into the moment of the emergency and shows how the children deal with the episode.
Winner of Booker Prize, this book has been added in the list of Great Book of the 20th century and narrates the story of Saleem Siana and the times he lives with the newborn nation.
Divided in three parts, the novel begins with the story of Siani’s family and the various events that lead to India’s independence and eventually to partition. Born precisely at the midnight, Saleem was born with telepathic powers and later discovers that all the kids born in India between 12 A.M. and 1 A.M. are impregnated with the special power.
Using his telepathic powers, he assembles a conference with all kids to reflect upon the issues like culture, linguistic, religion and political differences to shape the nation. Highlighting the relation between father and son and a nation yet in its nascent stage, it is an enchanting family adventure with lots of human drama and shocking summoning.
This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Forty years after its publication, Midnight’s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.
The novel has also been adapted as a stage show by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the year 2003.
size/672 Pages
off/Action,Adventure
