Shalimar the Clown

By: Salman Rushdie

Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi

Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

From Salman Rushdie, New York Times best-selling author, Booker Prize-winner, and one of the great voices in contemporary literature, comes a majestic novel that solidifies the author's right to a Nobel Prize, which Kirkus Reviews says "he deserves more than any other living writer".

When Maximilian Ophuls is murdered outside his daughter's home by his Kashmiri Muslim driver, it appears to be a political killing. Ophuls is the former U.S. ambassador to India and America's leading figure in counter-terrorism. But there is much more to Ophuls and his assassin, a mysterious man calling himself "Shalimar the Clown", than meets the eye. One woman is at the center of their shared history, a history of betrayal and deception that moves from World War II Europe to the troubled Kashmir region to contemporary America.

Rushdie effortlessly weaves a series of interconnected narratives to form a sweeping and ambitious tale, at once timeless and startlingly modern, that reaches back through the years and across the continents.

©2005 Salman Rushdie (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• 2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Fiction

"Shalimar the Clown is a powerful parable about the willing and unwilling subversion of multiculturalism." (Publishers Weekly)
"If Rushdie cannot make you see and smell and feel the loveliness of life in Kashmir, he does, finally, make a commanding story of its loss." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A masterly deployment of interconnected narratives spanning six decades....Dazzling....A magical-realist masterpiece." (Kirkus Reviews)
"A cogent descriptor of Rushdie's sheer and magnificent talent. His beautifully metaphoric language and sly sense of humor keep his complex plot, with its layers of personal and cosmic meaning, tightly woven." (Booklist)

Rushdie at his best

This is a brilliant and moving book. Its beautifully crafted sentences will dazzle you, its wonderful characters will surprise you and hold you rapt, and its plot will move you now to tears now to laughter. All this while you are being taught the politics of the fight over Kashmir through the lives of people in the tiny village of Pachigam and the metropolis of Los Angeles.

Wonderfully presented

The narrator is perfect. Great rhythm, deep knowledge of the words in their context, for a very powerful book. This is one of the books that is better heard than read, because of the large number of unusual and foreign words

Great novel.

Great character development. The historical and geographical settings are wonderfully presented. My first book by this author, will definitely not be the last.

Fascinating

This book takes you on a journey driven by revenge, vivid and full of passion.

Incredible Narrator

The narrator does a great job imbuing personality into each character, even mimicking accents for each nationality. He reads Rushdie’s dark, dramatic moments in a way that makes your heart stop and stomach sink. Well done.

Conflicting feelings

This is the first Rushdie book I have read. He is most certainly a brilliant author, his use of language is innovative, interesting and just excellent throughout. It is a joy to listen to. His knowledge of the country and culture described is evident throughout the story.

Where I have some problems is with his version of the facts of what happened in Kashmir, I found it somewhat one-sided. Having said that, the book is still well worth reading.

Loved it

I really enjoyed this story. Great narration.

Excellent

This is the first book that I've heard/read by Salman Rushdie. I had no sense of his writing capabilities and found myself floored by the beauty of the writing and the epic nature of the story. He flawlessly mixed fact and fiction to create a bold story of high emotional content. It did take a while to get my head adjusted to the complexities of the story and the writing style, but I ultimately became so attached to the book that I was sad to reach the end.

Beautiful

Great story, greatly performed. One of Rushdie's great works come to life by a good performance a a a a

Incredible

I've been working my way through all of Salman Rushdie's works, and this latest book in an incredible read or listen. Like all of his works, Rushdie delves heavily into parallel dimensions, west/east, past/present, male/female, but also manages to tell a tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the second half of the book. I was particularly impresed by the ending - well done, Mr. Rushdie!

Also worth noting is that the narrator does an excellent job, and his accent and delivery do a great deal to smooth out sections that would otherwise be difficult to western ears.