Midnight's Children
British and Indian novelist, born 1947. Won the Booker Prize in 1981 and the Costa Novel Award in 1988 and 1995.
Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. It won the Booker Prize in 1981.
On 13 of the 21 lists it was eligible for.
The Novel Index earns a small commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our rankings. More about how we earn.
At a glance
- Author
- Salman Rushdie
- First published
- 1981
- Length
- 672 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Booker Prize winner, 1981
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Magical realism, Postmodern, Political
Is Midnight's Children worth reading?
13 of the 21 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Booker Prize and The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library, 1998) | No. 90 | See the list |
| 100 books of the century (Le Monde, 1999) | No. 100 | See the list |
| 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime (Amazon.co.uk, 2014) | Listed | See the list |
| 100 novels everyone should read (The Telegraph, 2009) | No. 94 | See the list |
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| Bokklubben World Library (Norwegian Book Clubs, 2002) | Listed | See the list |
| Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 1981) | Winner | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 62 | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 23 | See the list |
| The 100 best novels written in English (The Guardian / Observer, 2015) | Listed | See the list |
| The 100 greatest British novels (BBC Culture, 2015) | No. 46 | See the list |
| The Big Jubilee Read (BBC Arts and The Reading Agency, 2022) | Listed | See the list |
| The Big Read top 100 (BBC, 2003) | No. 100 | See the list |
Best edition of Midnight's Children
The edition we link to is the Vintage Classics paperback (2008), 672 pages.
- Publisher
- Vintage Classics (paperback, 2008)
- Pages
- 672
- ISBN
- 9780099511892
How critics, prizes and readers rate Midnight's Children
Critics rate it most highly: it earned 68% of the points available on critics' lists, against 53% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 25% on prize lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Midnight's Children
If you liked Midnight's Children, try The Moor's Last Sigh, The Satanic Verses or The Grapes of Wrath.
