Shalimar the Clown

Salman Rushdie author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:5th Oct '06

Should be back in stock very soon

Shalimar the Clown cover

'This is Rushdie at his most flamboyant best' John Sutherland, Financial Times

Despite the political overtones, it soon emerges that this is a murder with a much darker heart to it.

The killing has its roots halfway across the globe, back in Kashmir, a ruined paradise not so much lost as shattered.


'Rushdie's most engaging book since Midnight's Children' Observer


Shalimar the Clown was once a figure full of love and laughter. His skill as a tightrope walker was legendary in his native home of Kashmir. But fate has played him cruelly, torn him away from his beloved home and brought him to Los Angeles, where he works as a chauffeur. One morning he gets up, goes to work, and kills his employer, America's former counter-terrorist chief Maximilian Ophuls, in view of the victim's illegitimate daughter, India.

The killing has its roots halfway across the globe, back in Kashmir, a ruined paradise not so much lost as shattered. And gradually it emerges that beyond this unholy trinity of Max, India and Shalimar, lurks a fourth, shadowy figure, one who binds them all together.

'This is Rushdie at his most flamboyant best' Financial Times

A brilliant symphony... Exceptional... One of Rushdie's best novels yet * Independent *
Extraordinary... Worth engaging with at every level; a thrilling story told in thrilling language * The Times *
Shalimar the Clown is Rushdie's most engaging book since Midnight's Children. It is a lament. It is a revenge story. it is a love story. And it is a warning * Observer *
Deeply disturbing and immensely moving... An exquisite, broken thing of pain and beauty * Independent *
Excellent... A characteristically daring walk along the tightrope of fiction * Sunday Telegraph *

  • Short-listed for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2007

ISBN: 9780099421887

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 25mm

Weight: 291g

416 pages