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Salman Rushdie On Collision Of Genies And Mortals In 'Two Years'

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With guest host Jane Clayson.

Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie joins us on his latest novel where the worlds of genies and mortal humans collide.

Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie is shown on a stage discussing his life and work in Treasure Beach, Jamaica in 2014. (David McFadden/AP)
Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie is shown on a stage discussing his life and work in Treasure Beach, Jamaica in 2014. (David McFadden/AP)

Author Salman Rushdie has delighted readers for 40 years. With “Midnight’s Children,” “Shalimar the Clown,” “The Ground Beneath Her Feet.” He was born in Bombay, educated in London, and now lives in New York. A fierce advocate for free speech, he had to go into hiding for years after his novel “The Satanic Verses” spurred calls for his assassination. Now, he’s out with a new novel -- “Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights.” It tells a sprawling tale of evil demons and humans. Of mythology and love. And chaos in an uncertain, unreasonable world. This hour, On Point: author Salman Rushdie.
-- Jane Clayson

Guests

Salman Rushdie, author. His new novel is "Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights." (@SalmanRushdie)

Tom's Reading List

The Guardian: Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie review - A Modern Arabian Nights - "Rushdie is our Scheherazade, inexhaustibly enfolding story within story and unfolding tale after tale with such irrepressible delight that it comes as a shock to remember that, like her, he has lived the life of a storyteller in immediate peril. Scheherazade told her 1,001 tales to put off a stupid, cruel threat of death; Rushdie found himself under similar threat for telling an unwelcome tale. So far, like her, he has succeeded in escaping. May he continue to do so."

Harvard Business Review: Life's Work: An Interview with Salman Rushdie - "Salman Rushdie: Nonfiction sells better than fiction these days. But one thing you learn as a history major is how contested events are. Facts are slippery. The truth is imperfect. Fiction recognizes that. There’s also another kind of truth—the truth of how we human beings relate to one other, to place, to ideas and belief systems—and you find that in a novel."

Washington Post: Salman Rushdie's New Novel is a Swirling Tale of Genies and Geniuses - "According to Salman Rushdie’s new novel, most of what we know about genies is wrong, which makes me worry that I may have spent too much time watching Barbara Eden. The harem pants, the wish-granting, that eager “master” talk — turns out, it’s all pure fantasy. “It was extremely unwise to believe that such potent, slippery beings could have masters,” Rushdie writes. And we’re not even using the right term. “The name of the immense force that had entered the world was jinn.” "

Read An Excerpt From 'Two Years, Eight Months And Twenty-Eight Days' By Salman Rushdie

This program aired on September 7, 2015.

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