Salman Rushdie, the distinguished author of books such as Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses, and Joseph Anton: A Memoir, joins Brian this week to discuss his latest novel Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights, the themes of alienation and truth that often lie beneath the surface in his work, and why, in a world gone mad, fiction matters. Plus, Salman talks about his rocky start as a writer, an unforgettable night at Madison Square Garden, and how religious fascists are waging a war on pleasure.

 

Topics mentioned on today’s show include:

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie

The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie

Candide by Voltaire

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

The Arabian Knights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights

The animal fables of The Panchatantra

The Hamzanama

Ocean of the Streams of Stories

Grimus by Salman Rushdie

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie slams critics of PEN’s Charlie Hebdo tribute

Tenth of December by George Saunders

The Illusionist

Eisenheim the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

“One” by U2

ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape by Rukmini Callimachi

 

People mentioned on today's show:

Christopher Hitchens

Joyce Carol Oates

Joan Didion

Ibn Rushd

Kierkegaard

Gustave Flaubert

Thorstein Veblen

Ian McEwan

Martin Amis

Julian Barnes

Kazuo Ishiguro

Jane Austen

Walt Whitman

Penn Jillette

Jonathan Franzen

Steven Milhauser

William Kennedy

James Salter

H.L. Mencken

 

This episode of The Moment is brought to you by Open Account, a podcast series created by SuChin Pak and Umpqua Bank. Open Account explores, through honest and sometimes comical interviews, our uncomfortable silence around money.  Open Account is available now on iTunes.

 

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