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  • Midnight's Children

  • Written by: Salman Rushdie
  • Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
  • Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (102 ratings)

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Midnight's Children cover art

Midnight's Children

Written by: Salman Rushdie
Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
Free with 30-day trial

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Publisher's Summary

This Audible production expertly brings to life Salman Rushdie’s postcolonial masterpiece Midnight’s Children, available for the first time unabridged in audio. A magical tale of discovery and identity, Midnight’s Children explores the wonders and perils of India’s birth through the eyes and actions of a child blessed with extraordinary powers.

About the book

Salman Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children, was an immediate success following its publication in 1981. The winner of both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize that year, it also went on to win the Booker best all-time prize in both 1993 and 2008.

Written in the magical-realist style that Rushdie is renowned for, Midnight’s Children follows Saleem Sinai - a child gifted with extraordinary powers after being born at the exact moment India becomes independent. The captivating events that unfold act as an allegory for India’s transition from colonialism to independence as Saleem finds himself 'handcuffed to history', with his fate entwined with that of his newly independent state.

Midnight’s Children is both comedy and tragedy, blending the real with the surreal as an enthralling family saga unwinds against the backdrop of a postcolonial India. A stunning story, rich with vibrant images and delightful characters, it thoroughly deserves its place as a modern masterpiece and an inspiration for a whole generation of future Indian writers.

About the author

One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in modern literature, Salman Rushdie is a multi-award-winning British Indian novelist whose writings on magical realism and postcolonialism have inspired and enchanted millions of people around the world. Born in Bombay in 1947, his early years were spent in India before moving to England and eventually reading history at King's College, University of Cambridge.

Rushdie first gained fame following the publication of his second novel, Midnight’s Children, but it was the publication of his fourth book, The Satanic Verses, that resulted in global notoriety. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him which resulted in death threats and the banning of the book in 13 countries. A winner of dozens of the highest awards in literature, Rushdie was also the recipient of a knighthood in the UK in 2007.

©1981 Salman Rushdie (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Midnight's Children

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Horrendous Pronunciation of Indian Words

For a book set in the Indian Subcontinent why choose a narrator who cannot pronunce any Indian words. Words like Ganesh, Dupatta or Lata in Lata Mangeshkar are pronounced wrong. And the accents, oh the accents, terrible. Midnight's children is one of the best books I've read and this audio book does a disservice to that book.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

uninteresting, stretched and not so well connected

I personally didn't like it much, although I finished it the same. No one strong theme runs through the story. The dots have been connected in a very artificial manner. Of course I can be wrong and might evaluate or understand the novel in a different light some other time.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Horrible narration

Does Audible go out of its way to find narrators who will butcher content from the subcontinent? Find a brown man who hates research and let him at it?

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

strong contender for worst narration on audible

The novel has some merits but it's not equal to the damage caused by the narrator. Audible took no care choosing this one.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nice book. Irritating recitation.

The book is good but the recitation of secondary character is irritating and spoils the fun.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The narration stands out!

The book has now been on my reading list for almost 5 years but I was not able to complete as on occasions it became too tiring to keep track.
The dramtised narration stands out in that way to make the story more interesting adding a touch of cinematic framework as well

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t hear clearly

I wish the narrator would be loud enough. I had to rewind multiple times to listen again and yet few sentences were still not heard. The pitch is so uneven.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

a good write by an expert storyteller

Salman keeps the glue intact in his this fiction book. expertly written in easy language and comparing history with his own unique style of satire. Homer Todiwala has done justice to the story by his excellent narrative voice and caricature.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A book to read as well as listen

Absolutely fascinating narrative that jogs your imagination and creative impulses. I fell in love with his writing style and the way he weaves in bits of historical significance in his own way. - Arvind Passey - Blog: www.passey.info

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

An extremely disappointing book and production

A terrible, disappointing, uninteresting storyline which is totally ungripping in every way. Started this book only because of the name-fame of the author and what a complete waste of time it was, getting only worse as the story progresses.

It is neither a political period story, or a social tale, nor a philosophy, nor even properly thoughtfully constructed language . Apart from one sentence in the whole book ( "... they have partitioned time..."), it is just a huge forcefully constructed jumble of every thing, which resembles a big mess. Nothing more.

The production quality was so poor with bad and wrong pronounciations of Hindi words and overly dramatised. artificially enacted accent for quotes, that it made your head hurt. Totally uncharacteristic of what would be expected from a brand like Audible.

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