Description
'Rushdie's most engaging book since Midnight's Children' Observer
Shalimar the Clown was once a figure full of love and laughter. His skill as a tightrope walker was legendary in his native home of Kashmir. But fate has played him cruelly, torn him away from his beloved home and brought him to Los Angeles, where he works as a chauffeur. One morning he gets up, goes to work, and kills his employer, America's former counter-terrorist chief Maximilian Ophuls, in view of the victim's illegitimate daughter, India.
The killing has its roots halfway across the globe, back in Kashmir, a ruined paradise not so much lost as shattered. And gradually it emerges that beyond this unholy trinity of Max, India and Shalimar, lurks a fourth, shadowy figure, one who binds them all together.
'This is Rushdie at his most flamboyant best' Financial Times
'This is Rushdie at his most flamboyant best' John Sutherland, Financial Times
About the Author
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize). A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature and was made a Companion of Honour in the Queen's last Birthday Honours list in 2022.
Reviews
A brilliant symphony... Exceptional... One of Rushdie's best novels yet * Independent *
Extraordinary... Worth engaging with at every level; a thrilling story told in thrilling language * The Times *
Shalimar the Clown is Rushdie's most engaging book since Midnight's Children. It is a lament. It is a revenge story. it is a love story. And it is a warning * Observer *
Deeply disturbing and immensely moving... An exquisite, broken thing of pain and beauty * Independent *
Excellent... A characteristically daring walk along the tightrope of fiction * Sunday Telegraph *
Awards
Short-listed for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2007.
Book Information
ISBN 9780099421887
Author Salman Rushdie
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 287g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 25mm
