It would be perfect to read to a child of around 7 to 10, over a couple of weeks (twelve equal chapters), but as a solo adult, I enjoyed the wistfulness of a childish read, coupled with something much more profound. It has the powerful mythical feel of traditional fairy tales, with plenty of nods to classics, and a political undercurrent that tells of the time he wrote it. I'm not quite sure why I picked this up (it's a children's book, and my 'child' was 21 last week - perhaps I'm hankering for times past), but I'm glad I did.

' What's the use of stories that aren't even true?' In 2007, he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University. In June 2007, he was appointed a Knight Bachelor for 'services to literature', which 'thrilled and humbled' him. Faced with death threats and a fatwa (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, which called for him to be killed, he spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically. His fourth novel led to some violent protests from Muslims in several countries. His style is often classified as magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western world. Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, a novelist and essayist, set much of his early fiction at least partly on the Indian subcontinent. The Satanic Verses (1988), novel of Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie led Ruholla Khomeini, the ayatollah of Iran, to demand his execution and then forced him into hiding his other works include Midnight's Children (1981), which won the Booker prize, and The Moor's Last Sigh (1995).

Haroun and the sea of stories review