An edition of The Satanic Verses (1988)

The Satanic Verses

1st American edition (1)
  • 3.62 ·
  • 24 Ratings
  • 459 Want to read
  • 26 Currently reading
  • 40 Have read

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 3.62 ·
  • 24 Ratings
  • 459 Want to read
  • 26 Currently reading
  • 40 Have read

Buy this book

Last edited by MARC Bot
December 11, 2023 | History
An edition of The Satanic Verses (1988)

The Satanic Verses

1st American edition (1)
  • 3.62 ·
  • 24 Ratings
  • 459 Want to read
  • 26 Currently reading
  • 40 Have read

Just before dawn one winter's morning a hijacked jumbo-jet blows apart high above the English Channel. Through the debris of limbs, drinks trolleys, memories, blankets and oxygen masks, two figures fall towards the sea without benefit of parachutes: Gibreel Farishta, India's legendary movie star, and Saladin Chamcha, the man of a thousand voices, self-made self and Anglophile supreme. Clinging to each other, singing rival songs, they plunge downward, and are finally washed up, alive, on the snow-covered sands of an English beach. A miracle; but an ambiguous one, because it soon becomes apparent that curious changes are coming over them. Gibreel seems to have acquired a halo, while, to Saladin's dismay, his legs grow hairier, his feet turn into hoofs, and there are bumps burgeoning at his temples.

So begins The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie's first novel for five years.

Gibreel and Saladin have been chosen (by whom?) as protagonists in the eternal wrestling match between Good and Evil. But which is which? Can demons be angelic? Can angels be devils in disguise? As the two men tumble through their tale, through time as well as space, towards their final confrontation, we are witnesses to a cycle of extraordinary stories, tales of love and passion, of betrayal and faith: the story of Ayesha, the butterfly-shrouded visionary who leads an Indian village on an impossible pilgrimage; of Allie, the mountain-climber haunted by a ghost who urges her to attempt the ultimate feat — a solo ascent of Everest; of murders, metamorphoses and riots in a London "visible but unseen"; and, centrally, the story of Mahound, the Prophet of Jahilia, the city of sand — Mahound, the recipient of a revelation in which satanic verses mingle with divine.

In this great wheel of a book, where the past and the future chase each other furiously, Salman Rushdie takes us on an epic journey, a journey of tears and laughter, of wonderful stories and astonishing flights of the imagination, a journey towards the evil and the good that lie inseparably entwined within the hearts of women and of men.
--front flap

Publish Date
Publisher
Viking
Language
English
Pages
549

Buy this book

Previews available in: Dutch Spanish French English German

Edition Availability
Cover of: De duivelsverzen
De duivelsverzen
2010-06, Pandora
Paperback in Dutch - Vierentwintigste druk
Cover of: Los Versos Satanicos
Los Versos Satanicos
1997 December, Plaza & Janes Editores, S.A.
Paperback in Spanish
Cover of: Les Versets sataniques
Les Versets sataniques
1990-06, France Loisirs
Hardcover in French - Edition du Club France Loisirs
Cover of: The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
1989, Viking
Hardcover in English - 1st American edition (1)
Cover of: Les versets sataniques
Les versets sataniques
1989, C. Bourgois
in French
Cover of: The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
1989, Viking
Hardcover in English - BOMC
Cover of: Die Satanischen Verse
Die Satanischen Verse
1989, Artikel 19
Hardcover in German
Cover of: The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
1989, Viking
Paperback in English
Cover of: Die Satanischen Verse
Die Satanischen Verse
1989, Artikel 19
Hardcover in German
Cover of: The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
1989, Viking
Hardcover in English and English - BOMC

Add another edition?

Book Details


Published in

New York, USA

Edition Notes

Copyright Date
1988

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
823/.914
Library of Congress
PR6068.U757 S27 1989, PR6068.U757 S27394 2007, PR6068.U757 S27 1988
lccn_permalink
https://lccn.loc.gov/88040266

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Pagination
546 p. ;
Number of pages
549

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL2060808M
Internet Archive
satanicverses00rush
ISBN 10
0670825379
ISBN 13
9780670825370
LCCN
88040266, 2010306036, 89116884
OCLC/WorldCat
456675505, 18326352, 18558869, 173483393
Alibris ID
9780670825370
Google
nD1bAAAAMAAJ
Library Thing
12601
Goodreads
44647625

Work Description

The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published September 26, 1988 and inspired in part by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters. The title refers to the satanic verses, a group of Quranic verses that refer to three pagan Meccan goddesses: Allāt, Uzza, and Manāt. The part of the story that deals with the "satanic verses" was based on accounts from the historians al-Waqidi and al-Tabari.

In the United Kingdom, The Satanic Verses received positive reviews, was a 1988 Booker Prize finalist (losing to Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda) and won the 1988 Whitbread Award for novel of the year.

Excerpts

"To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die."
added by Lisa. "first sentence"

Links outside Open Library

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
December 11, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
November 1, 2023 Edited by OnFrATa Merge works (MRID: 92833)
September 28, 2023 Edited by AgentSapphire reverted to revision 52
September 26, 2023 Edited by Ruslana Binko //covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/579952-S.jpg
December 8, 2009 Created by ImportBot add works page