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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