Q 01/05

Which later novel by the author of Midnight's Children brought a fatwa calling for his death?

A) Shame

B) The Moor's Last Sigh

C) The Satanic Verses

D) Shalimar the Clown

Answer · why

C) The Satanic Verses

The Satanic Verses appeared in 1988, and its fallout reached this book too: a BBC series of Midnight's Children collapsed in 1997 when the country cho...

Q 02/05

Which leader writes to the newborn Saleem that his life will be 'the mirror of our own'?

A) Mahatma Gandhi

B) Jawaharlal Nehru

C) Lord Mountbatten

D) Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Answer · why

B) Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru's letter, addressed 'Dear Baby Saleem', promises that the nation will watch over his life 'with the closest attention', a promise the...

Q 03/05

At what exact moment is Saleem Sinai born?

A) Noon, 14 August 1947

B) Dawn, 26 January 1950

C) Midnight, 15 August 1947

D) Midnight, 1 January 1948

Answer · why

C) Midnight, 15 August 1947

Midnight, 15 August 1947 is the instant of India's independence, so his photograph makes the front page of the Times of India and he grows up, in his ...

Q 04/05

What part-time job paid Rushdie's bills while he wrote Midnight's Children?

A) Advertising copywriter

B) BBC radio producer

C) Schoolteacher

D) Barrister's clerk

Answer · why

A) Advertising copywriter

Advertising copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather, where his slogans included 'Naughty but nice' for cream cakes; he was broke, and the long, strange novel in...

Q 05/05

Saleem's race to finish his tale before his body fails echoes which story collection?

A) The Canterbury Tales

B) The Decameron

C) The Jataka Tales

D) The Arabian Nights

Answer · why

D) The Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights gives the novel more than its frame: Saleem says he must work 'faster than Scheherazade', and its 1,001 gifted children take their ...