Author:Salman Rushdie

The subjects of Salman Rushdie's collection of non-fiction range from The Wizard of Oz, U2, India and Indian writing, the death of Princess Diana, and football, to twentieth-century writers including Angela Carter, Arthur Miller, Edward Said, J. M. Coetzee and Arundhati Roy.
In a central section, 'Messages from the Plague Years', Rushdie focuses on the fight against the Iranian fatwa, presenting texts both personal and political, which show for the first time how it was to live through those days. Rushdie's columns for the New York Times confront current issues - Kashmir, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Islam and the West - as well as lighter topics such as reality TV, sport and sleaze. The book ends with the lectures that give it its title - Rushdie's exploration of the theme of frontiers: crossing them, breaking taboos, and - in the light of September 11 - the world of permeable frontiers in which we all live.
This impressive book limits itself to neither the light-hearted nor the undisturbably grave
—— Sunday TimesHe has a great deal to say-a likeable, readable and profoundly gripping book
—— Scotland on SundayTen years of Salman Rushdie's incisive non-fiction
—— IndependentRushdie has used all his experience and literary skills to defend what is most worth defending: our freedom to think, and say, and write what we want, without fear for our lives
—— Sunday TelegraphRushdie is the most assiduous reader of other people's work, a true and tireless man of literature...a total believer in the power of the word
—— Observer'Fantastical, inventive and finally serious...It's enjoyable as crime fiction, but the real attraction is the laughter waiting to be uncovered on each page'
—— Observer'An explosion of imaginative lunacy'
—— Daily ExpressKaroo is a very good and very funny novel of the old-fashioned American kind, the tragi-comic story - familiar from Philip Roth and JP Donleavy - of a selfish but vulnerable and oddly lovable monster whose own shortcomings don't disqualify him from saying some sharp things about the hypocrisies of the allegedly better-balanced types who despise him
—— HeraldAdulterous alcoholic and pathological liar, it is, nevertheless, hard not to love Karoo, whose sardonic observations are both poignant and extremely funny. This is comic writing at its best. Clever, well crafted and proof that Tesich was master of the medium
—— The TimesBrilliantly funny in its early chapters, but also very wise, the virtuosic irony turns to bitterness as a tragic story develops. Tesich died just after completing this marvellous, heart-felt valediction.
—— Scotland on SundayA sad novel with a jaunty, upbeat tone that disguises the tragedy of Tesich's magnetic characters
—— ObserverA feisty read you won't want to put down
—— WomanA must-read for empty nesters ... this is Trollope at her most poignant
—— Guernsey Now






