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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
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Previews available in: Dutch Spanish French English German
Subjects
General & Literary Fiction, East Indians, Didactic fiction, literary fiction, families, Islam, Fiction, Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, Survival, open_syllabus_project, metamorphosis, death, Family, Description and travel, Travel, Fiction, general, India, fiction, England, fiction, London (england), fiction, Criticism and interpretation, Islam in literature, Good and evil, English fiction, Roman de l'Inde de langue anglaise, Traductions françaises, Habiletés de survie, Romans, nouvelles, Indiens (Habitants de l'Inde), Hijacking of aircraft, Identity (Psychology), Airplane crash survival, Survie après accidents d'avion, General, Nicaragua, description and travel, JourneysPeople
Mahound, Allāt, Uzza, Manāt, Gibreel Farishta, Saladin Chamcha, Allie Cone, the Devil, Karim Abu Simbel, Al-Lat, Alleluia Cone, Ayesha, Anahita Sufyan, Bilal, Death, Changez Chamchawala, Hamza, Hanif Johnson, Hind, Mishal, ShaitanPlaces
India, England, London, Arabian Sea, Bombay, Brickhall, Everest, Yathrib, Spring of ZamzamShowing 10 featured editions. View all 48 editions?
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01
De duivelsverzen
2010-06, Pandora
Paperback
in Dutch
- Vierentwintigste druk
9025434711 9789025434717
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02
Los Versos Satanicos
1997 December, Plaza & Janes Editores, S.A.
Paperback
in Spanish
8401413826 9788401413827
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03
Les Versets sataniques
1990-06, France Loisirs
Hardcover
in French
- Edition du Club France Loisirs
2724249437 9782724249439
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08
The Satanic Verses
1989, Viking
Hardcover
in English
- 1st American edition (1)
0670825379 9780670825370
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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.
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