Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, India.His family was middle-class and Moslem. At fourteen Rushdie was sent to the Rugby School in England, and in 1964 Rushdie's parents moved to Karachi, Pakistan, following the Muslim exodus during a war between India and Pakistan which divided Rushdie and his family.
Rushdie then went to King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history. After graduating in 1968 he worked as an actor at a a theatre group in Kennington. From 1971 to 1981 Rushdie was a freelance advertising copywriter for Ogilvy and Mather and Charles Barker.
Rusdie's first novel was, GRIMUS, was published in 1975. It was a combination of fantasy and science fiction, which alludes to 12th-century Sufi poem "The Conference of Birds." MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN (1981), his next book, won the Booker Prizegave Rusdie a global audience. The book also gave Rushdie his first taste of the Censorship which would plague him in years to come. MIDNIGHT"S CHILDREN was banned in India because its portrayed Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay in a new and negative light due to their efforts in mass sterilization.
Rushdie won the Whitebread Award with his novel, The Satanic Verses. The novel was banned in India and South Africa and burned on the streets of Bradford, Yorkshire. Ayatollah Khomeini asked Muslims to search out and execute the writer and the publishers of the book, decalring a Fatwa which reads " The author of the Satanic Verses, a text written, edited and published against Islam, against the Prophet of Islam, and against the Koran, along with editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to capital punishment. I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to execute this sentence without delay, so that noone henceforth will dare insult the sacred beliefs of the Muslims." In 1993 Rushdie's Norwegian publisher William Nygaard was wounded in an attack outside his house.
The Satanic Verses is centered around a reputed story in the Muslim Koran. The character modelled on the Prophet Muhammad and his transcription of the Koran is portrayed in an unusual (and insulting to many Muslims) light. Rushdie's own translation of quotes, characters and stories from the Koran have caused his dangerous opposition.
Rushdie subsequently went into hiding, and a million-dollar reward for Rushdie's death was offered, and in 1997 the prize was doubled. In 1990 Rushdie published an essay with apology in which he declared his respect for Islam, but the Fatwa remained in tact. In 1998, after the Fatwa was repealed, an Iranian state prosecutor, Morteza Moqtadale, renewed the death sentencethis year with a 2.8 million dollar reward, sending Rushdie back into hiding. During the years of Fatwa, there have been violent protest in India, Pakistan, and Egypt. Rushdie has lived in hiding from assassins, but he has continued to write and publish books.Haroun and The Sea of Stories was Rushdie's fisrt published work after a long period of severe writers block following the institution of the Fatwa. The book was written for Rushdie's son as an explanation of Rusdie's work, the Fatwa and the Censorship battle in general in which he and his family were entwined. His second marriage broke up due to the strains of life under the Fatwa.
Grimus, 1975
Midnight's Children, 1981 - Keskiyön lapset - Booker-McConnell prize
Shame, 1983 - Häpeä - winner of the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
The Jaguar: A Nicaraguan Journey, 1987 - Jaguaarin hymy: Matka Nicaraguaan
The Satanic Verses, 1988 - Saatanalliset säkeet
Haroun and The Sea of Stories, 1990 - Harun ja Tarinoiden meri
In Good Faith, 1990
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1991
Wizards of OZ, 1992
East, West, 1994 - Itä, länsiI
The Morrs' Last sigh, 1995 - Maurin viimeinen huokaus
The Ground beneath her feet., 1999