The Satanic Verses

By: Salman Rushdie

Narrated by: Sam Dastor

Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Inextricably linked with the fatwa called against its author in the wake of the novel’s publication, The Satanic Verses is, beyond that, a rich showcase for Salman Rushdie’s comic sensibilities, cultural observations, and unparalleled mastery of language. The tale of an Indian film star and a Bombay expatriate, Rushdie’s masterpiece was deservedly honored with the Whitbread Prize.

The story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key work of our times.

©1988 Salman Rushdie (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a death sentence. Furor aside, it is a marvelously erudite study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the height of his powers, and a rollicking comic fable." (Amazon.com review)

"A rollercoaster ride over a vast landscape of the imagination." ( The Guardian)

"A masterpiece." ( The Sunday Times, London)

Unlike any other work of fiction!

Salman Rushdie's imagination is on an entirely different level. It's astounding that Ayatollah Khomeini thought it was appropriate to place a bounty on his head 34 years ago for this work of fiction. I laughed out loud several times and marveled at how Salman's mind imagined this story.

Best Narration Award

Wow! I would not have been able to read this book- complex and hard to track with so much dialogue, poetic language, and fantasy, but this narrator absolutely nailed it! Humor and empathy are brought to the development of each character. Really loved this audiobook.

Writing you don't climb down, you fly off

A near perfect novel. I loved the writing. I loved the characters. I loved how Rushdie was able to master Heaven and Hell, saint and sinner, the welkin and earth in this dreamlike exploration of what it means to be an immigrant, an angel, a saint and a sinner. At times he writes like a post-modern satirist cum Pynchon, then suddenly he melts into his best post-colonial Achebe, and then off again on his magical realist, literary carpet à la Gabriel García Márquez. Rushdie's writing is a mountain you don't climb down, you fly off.

A gem of a book

Such a pity that this powerful, moving and beautiful book has been tarnished by the memories of a fatwa by some ignorant ayatollah. One of the best novels I've ever read...Rushdie deserves to be recognized not only because of the hatred against him..but because of being a great writer and a strong creator of magic and dreams.

Satanic Verses: A story to die for

After the horrific event that happened to this brilliant author, and having heard about his life, his suffering I had to read this book. Usually I read classics like Dostoyevsky, Hugo Tolstoy, but was interested in listening to a contemporary novel. Having been to Mumbai as it is now called again and London hearing this amazingly narrated story, blew my mind. He is so imaginative yet with his pulse on reality that I am speechless. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book.

I always wondered

I remember the contract on the author’s life when I was younger. The narrator is amazing.

Difficult to follow at first, then I just gave in to enjoying it

Having not knowing the stories of the Koran, I really struggled at first to understand this magical realism story. Then, I just stopped trying and it came alive for me.

Unimpressed

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I've been hearing about this book for many years, and I've been intending to read it for over a decade now. I loved the author's Midnight's Children, and I had very high hopes for his most famous of books, but it just couldn't live up to all that hype. I suspect that nothing could have.

Did Sam Dastor do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

He did a great job with many of the voices. My only complaint was his rendition of Americans. His American accent is one of the strangest things I've heard in all my years of audiobooking.

Surreal and Excellent

beautiful prose and wonderfully drawn characters please don't listen to this book if you want a coherent plot that's not what this book is about I highly recommend it though the performance is wonderful and very very immersive

Astounding and epic in scope

A rich and enthralling story. The immigrant experience in Britain gives backdrop to an engrossing story that weaves together religious fanaticism, freedom, mental illness and a yearning in everyone to be a part of something transcendental. Wow