Salman Rushdie

**Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie**  (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist and essayist. He is the author of ''Midnight's Children* (1981), which won the Booker Prize. His best known work was *The Satanic Verses* (1988), which made him a controversial author and caused him to have many death threats.

Rushdie was born in India, but was sent to England to go to private school. He has lived in the United States since 2000. Rushdie is well known for writing stories which use "magic realism", which is similar to surrealism. This means that things in his stories happen which may be magic or impossible, such as falling from an aeroplane and floating down as gently as paper. He often writes about India, and his stories often are set in different parts of the world.

## Fiction 
In 1988, Rushdie wrote a book called *The Satanic Verses''. The book included a fictional story about some characters with a made-up religion. Some people have said that it insults Muhammad, but others disagree. Rushdie said about the story: "his Prophet was not called Muhammad, lived in a city not called Mecca, and created a religion not (or not quite) called Islam. And he appeared only in the dream sequences of a man being driven insane by his loss of faith.". Because of this book, a fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran. It called for Rushdie's execution.

## Controversy 
The leader of the country of Iran talked on the radio about Rushdie. He said that Rushdie did not believe in Islam and that Rushdie should be executed because he thought the book was bad. This is called a fatwa. In the year 1989, the British government began protecting Rushdie. He says he has always been an atheist, but is still interested in religion. but some people such as "Iranian hardliners" don't agree. Rushdie was airlifted to hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery. A day later, Rushdie was taken off the ventilator and was able to speak.

## Writing by Salman Rushdie 
### Fiction 
* *Grimus*
* ''Midnight's Children*
* *Shame*
* *The Satanic Verses*
* *Haroun and the Sea of Stories*
* *East, West*
* *The Moor's Last Sigh*
* *The Ground Beneath Her Feet*
* *Fury*
* *Shalimar the Clown*
* *The Enchantress of Florence*
* *Luka and the Fire of Life*
* *Je Moeder*

### Nonfiction 
* *The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey*
* *Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991*
* *Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002*

### Plays 
* *Haroun and the Sea of Stories* (with Tim Supple and David Tushingham)
* *Midnight's Children* (with Tim Supple and Simon Reade)

### Screenplay 
* *Midnight's Children*

### Anthologies 
* *Mirrorwork: 50 Years of Indian Writing, 1947-1997* (coeditor)
* *Best American Short Stories 2008* (coeditor)

## Gallery 

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## References
## Other websites 
* Contemporary writers: Salman Rushdie. British Council: Arts. Retrieved December 17, 2006.
* The Rushdie Experiment conducted in Tehran, Iran, in October/November 2006 to see if he has outlasted public hatred of him 
* Long interview with Rushdie in which he provides context for the *fatwa* and reflects on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism 
* Interview with Rushdie for Princeton Report on Knowledge about storytelling, freedom of expression and the 2004 US presidential election.
* Rushdie to teach at Emory 
* *New York Times'' special feature on Rushdie, 1999
* The Rushdie death threat affair 
* Rushdie timeline 
* Summaries of all his novels and links to interviews with Rushdie