Explorations Read-Aloud: “Midnight’s Children: A Novel” by Salman Rushdie

Every Friday, at 11:00 am, on the library’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, the library will stream a brand new recording of local thespian, Joseph Coté reading aloud selections from a wide variety of fascinating and entertaining books of fiction and non-fiction.

For December 5, Coté will read aloud from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children: A Novel.

• 1981 BOOKER PRIZE WINNER
• 1981 JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE WINNER
• Britain’s Oldest Literary Award
• 1993 BEST OF THE BOOKERS PRIZE
• Celebrating the Booker Prize’s 25th Anniversary
• 2003 BBC’s TOP 100 “BIG READ POLL”
• The UK’s “best-loved novels” of all time.
• 2008 BEST OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
• Celebrating the Booker Prize’s 40th Anniversary
• THE MODERN LIBRARY – One of the 100 Best Novels of all time

Midnight’s Children traces India’s transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition.

It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical events.

Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country.

Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy.

Forty years after its publication, Midnight’s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.

Click the links to find the library’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page.

Thoughts to share? Book ideas to suggest?
Contact Joseph at friday-explorations@usa.net