Grimus

Description: Flapping Eagle is a young Indian given the gift of immortality after drinking a magic fluid. Tiring of the burden of immortal life he sets off to find the mystical Calf Island, where he can rejoin the human race. His journey is peopled with strange assortments of characters, including the clumsy, loquacious Virgil Jones; his ugly, tragic companion, Dolores O'Toole; the wicked conjurer, Nicholas Deggle; the dainty, light-spirited Elfrida Gribb; and the enigmatic, pervasive Grimus, creator and controller of the mysterious island. An enticing combination of science fantasy, storytelling and folklore makes this first novel by Salman Rushdie an epic adventure truly unlike any other. Review: "Thunderous and touching" Financial Times "Engrossing and wonderful" Los Angeles Times "Ambitious, strikingly confident" Times Literary Supplement "Stimulating, funny, a thoroughly good read" Harpers & Queen "A mixture of science fiction and folktale, past and future, primitive and present day... Grimus is a parallel form of life, and conjuring of an alternative society" Financial Times Author Biography: Salman Rushdie is the author of eight novels:Grimus, Midnight's Children (which was awarded the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Prize), Shame (winner of the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger), The Satanic Verses (winner of the Whtibread Prize for Best Novel), Haroun and the Sea of Stories (winner of the Writers' Guild Award), The Moor's Last Sigh (winner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award), The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Fury. He has also published a collection of short stories, Eats, West; a book of reportage, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey; a volume of essays, Imaginary Homelands; and a work of film criticism, 'The Wizard of Oz'. Salman Rushdie was awarded Germany's Author of the Year Award for his novel The Satanic Verses in 1989. In 1993, Midnight's Children was adjudged the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. IN the same year he was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He is also an Honorary Professor on the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute f Technology (MIT) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His books have been published in more than two dozen languages.