• Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

  • A Novel
  • By: Salman Rushdie
  • Narrated by: Robert G. Slade
  • Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (552 ratings)

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Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights  By  cover art

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

By: Salman Rushdie
Narrated by: Robert G. Slade
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Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

Named one of the best books of the year by The Washington PostLos Angeles TimesSan Francisco ChronicleHarper’s BazaarSt. Louis Post-DispatchThe GuardianThe Kansas City StarNational Post BookPageKirkus Reviews

From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our world has been plunged into an age of unreason, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is a breathtaking achievement and an enduring testament to the power of storytelling.

In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub-Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor's office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining.

Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn, who live in a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world.

Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia's children and others will play a role in an epic war between light and dark spanning a thousand and one nights - or two years, eight months, and 28 nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, in which beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, and a noise may contain a hidden curse.

Inspired by the traditional "wonder tales" of the East, Salman Rushdie's novel is a masterpiece about the age-old conflicts that remain in today's world. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is satirical and bawdy, full of cunning and folly, rivalries and betrayals, kismet and karma, rapture and redemption.

Praise for Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights:

“Rushdie is our Scheherazade.... This book is a fantasy, a fairytale - and a brilliant reflection of and serious meditation on the choices and agonies of our life in this world.” (Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian)

“One of the major literary voices of our time... In reading this new book, one cannot escape the feeling that [Rushdie’s] years of writing and success have perhaps been preparation for this moment, for the creation of this tremendously inventive and timely novel.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

©2015 Salman Rushdie (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"In his latest novel, [Salman] Rushdie invents his own cultural narrative - one that blends elements of One Thousand and One Nights, Homeric epics, and sci-fi and action/adventure comic books...." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

1001 whimsical, capricious, and wanton jinn

"This is a story from our past, from a time so remote we argue, sometimes, about wither we should call it history or mythology. Some of us call it a fairy tale. But on this we agree: that to tell a story about the past is to tell a story about the present. To recount a fantasy, a story of the imaginary, is also a way of recounting a tale about the actual. If this were not true then the deed would be pointless, and we try in our daily lives to eschew pointlessness whenever possible."
- Salman Rushdie, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights.

"In the end, rage, no matter how profoundly justified, destroys the enraged. Just as we are created anew by what we love, so we are reduced and unmade by what we hate."
- Salman Rushdie, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights.

Probably 3.5 stars. Don't misunderstand me. I liked the book. I liked its playfulness. The mixture of high and low, of jinn and man, of future telling its past. I loved how it streaks across 1001 days (or nights), a strange myth of the time of strangeness told 1001 years later. How it mixes Harry Potter with Henry James. I loved the cartoon versions of Obama, al-Qæda, etc.

So, yes, it really was a fun read and if these 290 magical realist, baggy, non-linear pages were birthed by some freshman IEL writer just out of some MFA lamp, I would probably call it a great 4-star book, but this is Rushdie dammit. This is the guy who wrote Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. You will always be graded by your progeny and against your siblings. Rushdie and his books are no exception. His standard is set and the standard is pretty damn high, so three dark stars for this book, and perhaps one star trapped in some blue bottle somewhere.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My first (and not last) Rushdie book... Wow

Would you consider the audio edition of Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights to be better than the print version?

It's easy to get carried away in the stream-of-conscious flow of writing while it is being narrated to, but It would have been nice to able to go back and forth recalling the many names of characters in this book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did finish it in two sittings.

Any additional comments?

This is definitely going to be a book I will listen to again. There is so much philosophy being mixed into a clever "fantasy" novel. This is my first book by Rushdie and I know I will be checking out the Satanic Verses.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narration Lacking, Story Engaging

Great book. Unlike Rushdie's usual books in that it's not depressing and is optimistic for a better world. A bit too long though.
However, the narration leaves much to be desired. The broad American accent takes away from the intended experience and atmosphere of the book. And the God-awful (and quite racist) faux-Indian accent that begins the third chapter almost made me return the book.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Annoyingly overdone narration

Beautifully written, imaginative story but overly-inflected narration in a broad American accent distracts from the story and the style. My advice: skip the audio and buy the book.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Words cannot describe what I think of this book

This was my first Salman Rushdie book, and after reading it I purchased Satanic Verses and The midnight children with my own money. I never do that, I blew my book budget for the month because I just had to hear more from him. They way he weaves a tale is mind blowing, it's truly incredible. My only problem is that sometimes I had to rewind because I had missed something, which shows how much I love this book because I HAD to understand what was going on at all times. It's not the kind of book that you can listen to while doing other things, you have to immerse yourself in the strange and wonderful world to get the full effect, a good book for a long car ride. I really cannot praise this book enough.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

oh so tedious!

What did you like best about Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights? What did you like least?

The idea is brilliant but it goes on and on and on. Without the perfect performance I wouldn't have endured half of it.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

I have a PhD in mythology and have taught the 1001 nights. This is a stunning telling, filled with metaphor and one of Rushdie's finest. What a gift

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting...

This book was a bit hard to follow at times. The writing was an interesting blend of biblical and mythological phrasing with occasionally current colloquium. Some of the nomenclature chosen sometimes detracted from the depth and gravity of the story. Also, the dialogue was often punchy and on the nose. Overall the premise and execution were thought provoking and intriguing. There were just a few hang-ups that made it a challenging story to get into at times.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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another classic

I am a big fan of all Rushdie's books, this is a wonderful tale of humanity, magic and might. Weaving the magic world and the standard in a way that is new yet familiar with his other works. Two thumbs up.

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Breathtakingly amazing

Rushdie as usual weaves the natural and surreal with elements from history and present to create another masterpiece that reveals the destructive role of religious beliefs and to advocate for reason and humanity

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