Where to start with Salman Rushdie

British and Indian novelist, born 1947. Won the Booker Prize in 1981 and the Costa Novel Award in 1988 and 1995.

Best Salman Rushdie book to start with: Midnight's Children (1981), on 13 of the 21 lists it could have made.

Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981, is the Rushdie to read first. A man born at the moment of Indian independence narrates his life and the country’s, in a style that is exuberant and digressive. It is long, so read a chapter or two and see if the voice suits you.

If you want something shorter, Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a children’s story he wrote for his son, and it gives you his playfulness in miniature. The Moor’s Last Sigh won the Costa Novel Award in 1995 and was shortlisted for the Booker that year; it follows a family of spice traders in Cochin and Bombay. Shame, shortlisted in 1983, is set in an invented country that resembles Pakistan.

The Satanic Verses won the Costa in 1988 and was shortlisted for the Booker. It caused a worldwide controversy, which need not decide whether you read it. It is long and intricate, so read it later. Shalimar the Clown, shortlisted for the Costa in 2005, is set partly in Kashmir. Quichotte, shortlisted for the Booker in 2019, retells Don Quixote in modern America and is the most recent.