Episode · The Book Review · 2024-10-18
Books mentioned on The Ezra Klein Show: Salman Rushdie
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie's acclaimed yet controversial novel The Satanic Verses tells a complex narrative that led to a fatwa and years in hiding for its author.
Discussed“and then came the Satanic Verses and it changed everything when you began writing the Satanic Verses what did you understand yourself to be doing what kind of book were you writing”
Where to get it
-
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 it's about his marriage”
Where to get it
-
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
-
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“because it began in 1981 with the publication and success of midnight children which was important to me for a number of reasons first of all because”
Where to get it
-
White Teeth
White Teeth by Zadie Smith is a vibrant, multi-generational debut novel that explores identity, culture, and history through the lives of various families in London.
Discussed“it reminded me as a book more than anything else as I read it of white teeth by Zade Smith”
Where to get it
-
DON QUIXOTE
DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes is widely celebrated as one of the first and greatest masterpieces in the novel form, following a man who sets out to save the world and make it a better place.
Recommended“so I would recommend Don kote for many people the first great Masterpiece in the novel form and for many people the greatest especially also because there's now a wonderful new translation of it by Edith Gman”
Where to get it
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is a landmark masterpiece of magical realism that chronicles the multi-generational saga of the Buendía family in the fictional town of Macondo.
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 Gabriel Garcia Marquez and please read the book rather than watch the Netflix version”
Where to get it
-
The Castle
The Castle by Franz Kafka is a surreal and unfinished modernist novel that chronicles the frustrating, nightmarish struggles of a land surveyor attempting to gain access to the mysterious authorities governing a remote village from an imposing fortress.
Recommended“I mean I think you know of the three great masters of the 20th century Joyce Bru and kfka we live in kafka's world you know so I would probably say the trial or the castle or both of them”
Where to get it
-
The Trial
The Trial by Franz Kafka is a classic twentieth-century existential novel about a man arrested and prosecuted by an inaccessible, ambiguous authority for an unspecified crime.
Recommended“I mean I think you know of the three great masters of the 20th century Joyce Bru and kfka we live in kafka's world you know so I would probably say the trial or the castle or both of them”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“I wrote about it in Midnight's Children I wrote about it in shalomar the clown”
“I wrote about it in Midnight's Children I wrote about it in shalomar the clown”
“you've written a sort of autobiography before a memoir called Joseph Anton which you did in the third person”