549 pages
English language
Published May 11, 1989
The Satanic Verses is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired 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 about three pagan Meccan goddesses: Allāt, Al-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.The book received wide critical acclaim, 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. Timothy Brennan called the work "the most ambitious novel yet published to deal with the immigrant experience in Britain". The book and its perceived blasphemy motivated Islamic extremist bombings, killings, …
The Satanic Verses is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired 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 about three pagan Meccan goddesses: Allāt, Al-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.The book received wide critical acclaim, 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. Timothy Brennan called the work "the most ambitious novel yet published to deal with the immigrant experience in Britain". The book and its perceived blasphemy motivated Islamic extremist bombings, killings, and riots and sparked a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. Fearing unrest, the Rajiv Gandhi government banned the importation of the book into India. In 1989, Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against Rushdie, resulting in several failed assassination attempts on the author, who was granted police protection by the UK government, and attacks on connected individuals, including the Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi who was stabbed to death in 1991. Assassination attempts against Rushdie continued, including an attempt on his life in August 2022.
I read this a number of years ago. I didn't fully understand it at the time, but I've had a lot of time to digest it. It's a critique on Islam and not always favorable.
I listened to a fantastic old audio book version of The Satanic Verses. Somebody digitised it from a series of old cassette tapes and put it on the internet (thank you). I am not sure if it is the voice of Salman Rushdie himself, whoever it is, I would like to thank him so much for this brilliant work. 22 hours of listening pleasure during my walks to and from work.
I always thought that this was a very serious book. But for most parts it is hilarious. It is also long winding, and I must admit that at some parts I dozed off, simply enjoying the very pleasant sound of the narrator’s voice.
A heady stew of dialect and cultural references that I don't feel like I picked up on, suffused with vivid imagery. At its core, the characters' stories were strong and sympathetic. Every action they took made sense, and that held the book together despite the chaos going on around and within them.
