Midnight's Children

A dazzling epic that weaves together personal destiny and political history through the magical realist lens of Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment of India's independence.

Saleem Sinai's life is inextricably linked to the history of modern India. Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, as the British Empire relinquishes its hold on the subcontinent, Saleem discovers that he possesses telepathic powers that connect him to the other 1,001 children born in that first hour of independence.

Through Saleem's extraordinary story, Rushdie creates a kaleidoscopic portrait of the Indian subcontinent in all its chaos, beauty, and tragedy. The novel spans the partition of India and Pakistan, the wars between the two nations, the political upheavals in Bangladesh, and the Emergency period under Indira Gandhi. But this is no dry historical chronicle—Rushdie's narrative voice is exuberant, inventive, and utterly unique.

Saleem's telepathic connection to the other midnight's children serves as a metaphor for the fractured nature of post-colonial identity. As India struggles to define itself as a nation, Saleem struggles to understand his place within his fractured family and fragmented society. His physical deterioration—he's literally falling apart as he tells his story—mirrors the political disintegration happening around him.

Rushdie's prose is intoxicating, blending high literary style with the rhythms of oral storytelling, incorporating elements from Indian folklore, Islamic culture, and Western literary traditions. Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize and later the Booker of Bookers, recognizing it as the best novel to have won the prize in its first 25 years.