Home
/
Fiction
/
Haroun and Luka
Haroun and Luka
Jan 17, 2026 5:25 PM

Author:Salman Rushdie

Haroun and Luka

**ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 GREATEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF ALL TIME**

Haroun: What's the use of stories that aren't even true?

I asked that question and the Unthinkable Thing happened: my father can't tell stories anymore. That means no more laughter in the city of Alifbay and now the place stinks of sadness. So it's up to me to put things right. If the water genie Iff can take me on the Hoopoe bird Butt all the way to Gup City then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to persuade the Grand Comptroller to give my father his Story Water supply back. Trouble is, that is strictly forbidden, one hundred percent banned, no way Jose territory...

Luka: What do sea monsters eat?

The Old Man of the River of Time: Fish and Ships. Why was six afraid of seven?

Luka: Because seven eight nine.

Luckily, my father is the Riddle King and taught me everything I know. But the stakes are high in this riddle battle, couldn't be higher in fact! To save my father from Un-Life, I've got to beat the Old Man and steal the Fire of Life that burns at the top of the Mountain of Knowledge. Only problem is that nobody in the entire recorded history of the World of Magic has ever successfully stolen the Fire of Life...

Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can read an interview with the author and solve some fiendish riddles!

Vintage Children's Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Reviews

Lively, wonderfully inventive comic tale

—— Alison Lurie , New York Times Book Review on Haroun

A beautiful book... It's like a bridge, built between generations, fabulous and strange and from the heart

—— Neil Gaiman on Luka

Gripping

—— The Bookseller

I love books that still have me thinking about them days after I’ve finished. The Name On Your Wrist is an impressive debut and I for one can’t wait to see what Helen Hiorns comes up with next. There are many things that impressed me, but the fact that I couldn’t predict where the story was going to go was the best. There are surprises in store for the reader, which makes this book just even better

—— Luna's Little Library

This is another welcome edition to the ever growing dystopian list with a more than interesting premise . . . We have a flawed but feisty heroine, Corin, complex family issues and a complicated budding romance. Hiorns has created some very intriguing characters, and the relationship centred on self harm and resentment between Corin and her older sister Jacinta I found particularly interesting. Lots of questions about morality, love and free will are raised and the underlying theme of conspiracy makes for a thrilling read

—— Children's Newsletter, Askew & Holts

Undeniably, distinctively identifiable, vintage Martin

—— Independent on Sunday

The novel has a cumulative power and resonates with many reflections about the course of individual destiny in a profoundly cruel universe

—— The Times

This is Amis writing at the pitch he has reached in Money...remarkable

—— Times Literary Supplement

A compelling work of fiction in which learning and imagination are beautifully counterpoised

—— New Statesman

Savage, hilarious, uncannily moving, and true. It's the first novel I've read that burns with all the madness, sadness and refracted terror of right now, and everyone should read it. Right now

—— Jacob Polley

This is a book which does more than just take you on a journey through the last twenty years. It also has a lot to say about family eccentricities, about childhood and adulthood and the difficulties faced in trying to be either, given the times we live alongside

—— Matt Haig

The book is magnificent, understated, full of gentle mind grenades

—— Cliff Jones

Funny and rich and dirty and taut and original. I wanted it to be my biography, but there was way more warmth and invention in it than you could fit in a lifetime

—— David Whitehouse

Funny, sad, bewildering and painfully honest, it’s a must-read for all fans of Joe Dunthorne’s Submarine

—— Emerald Street

Funny and true

—— List

What a beautifully written first novel. Joe Stretch has a way with words that is intensely captivating… Superb on adolescence, the Nineties, and more

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

A consistently amusing hymn to unfulfilled potential which grows more involving and poignant as it goes on

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Jim is such a likeable character, unflinchingly recounting in all his worst failures and humiliations

—— Brandon Robshaw , Independent on Sunday

A funny, wryly observed coming-of-age novel, it will strike a chord with anyone who grew up during the Noughties. It’s full of quirky period details and Jim is an engaging narrator

—— Mail on Sunday
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved