Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2024-04-26
Ezra Klein & Salman Rushdie: books mentioned on The Ezra Klein Show
Salman Rushdie Is Not Who You Think He Is
Ezra Klein discussed The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Knife by Salman Rushdie, The Shadow by Hans Christian Andersen, White Teeth by Zadie Smith, and Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie. Salman Rushdie recommended DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, The Trial by Franz Kafka, and The Castle by Franz Kafka, and discussed Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie and Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie is a controversial postmodern novel that explores themes of migration, identity, and religious faith, famously resulting in a fatwa calling for the author's death upon its publication.
Discussed“long before I read literary fiction he just said in my Consciousness as the author of this Eerie sounding novel called The Satanic Verses a novel so somehow dangerous he had to go into hiding after the supreme leader of Iran said he and anyone involved in it should be killed for blaspheming Islam”
Where to get it
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Knife
Knife by Salman Rushdie is a powerful memoir detailing the author's recovery and reflections following the harrowing 2022 physical attack against him.
Discussed“and his latest book knife is about the attack it's about his life”
Where to get it
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The Shadow
The Shadow by Hans Christian Andersen is a dark and philosophical fairy tale about a scholar whose shadow detaches from him, eventually gaining independence and ultimate supremacy over its former master.
Discussed“I want to begin with a story you mention a little bit offhandedly in the book which is this story about the Shadow by Hans Christian Anderson”
Where to get it
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Midnight's Children
Midnight's Children is a celebrated novel by Salman Rushdie that explores the magical realist history of India from its independence and partition onward, touching upon regional themes such as Kashmir.
Discussed“I mean it was actually a very good decade for me because it began in 1981 with the publication and success of Midnight's Children which was important to me for a number of reasons”
Where to get it
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White Teeth
White Teeth by Zadie Smith is a vibrant debut novel that explores multicultural contemporary London through the intersecting lives of various immigrant families.
Discussed“it reminded as a book more than anything else as I read it of white teeth by Zade Smith um which I think the cality goes the other way”
Where to get it
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Shalimar The Clown
Discussed“and I've written a lot about Kashmir I wrote about it in Midnight's Children I wrote about it in shalomar the clown”
Where to get it
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Joseph Anton
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie is a powerful, third-person memoir chronicling the harrowing decade the author spent living in hiding under a religious fatwa following the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Discussed“then I think you've sort of admitted to giving you've written a sort of autobiography before a memoir called Joseph Anton which you did in the third person”
Where to get it
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DON QUIXOTE
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is widely celebrated as one of the earliest modern novels and a foundational masterpiece of Western literature.
Recommended“so I would recommend Don kote for many people the first Great Masterpiece in the novel form and for many people the greatest”
Where to get it
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is a landmark novel that chronicles the multi-generational history of the Buendía family in the fictional town of Macondo and stands as a masterwork of magical realism.
Recommended“I mean I will have to say because I think it's the greatest novel of the last however long 100 Years of Solitude by Gabrielle Garcia Marquez”
Where to get it
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The Trial
Franz Kafka's renowned novel "The Trial" tells the chilling story of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is abruptly arrested on his birthday for an unspecified crime by an amorphous, incomprehensible judicial system.
Recommended“we live in kafka's world you know um so would probably say the trial or the castle or both of them”
Where to get it
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The Castle
The Castle by Franz Kafka is a surreal, unfinished novel that delves into the nightmarish nature of bureaucratic systems and the absurd inaccessibility of authority figures.
Recommended“we live in kafka's world you know um so would probably say the trial or the castle or both of them”
Where to get it
