Salman Rushdie is the author of eleven novels: Grimus, Midnight’s Children (which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, and Luka and the Fire of Life.

A Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature, Salman Rushdie has received, among other honours, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel (twice), the Writers’ Guild Award, the James Tait Black Prize, the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature, Author of the Year Prizes in both Britain and Germany, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature, the Premio Grinzane Cavour in Italy, the Crossword Book Award in India, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, the London International Writers’ Award, the James Joyce award of University College Dublin, the St Louis Literary Prize, the Carl Sandburg Prize of the Chicago Public Library, and a U.S. National Arts Award. He holds honorary doctorates and fellowships at six European and six American universities, is an Honorary Professor in the Humanities at M.I.T, and University Distinguished Professor at Emory University.

In June 2007 he received a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. In 2008 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named a Library Lion of the New York Public Library. In addition, Midnight’s Children was named the Best of the Booker – the best winner in the award’s 40 year history – by a public vote.

His books have been translated into over forty languages.

A film of Midnight’s Children, directed by Deepa Mehta, will be released in 2012, as well as an autobiographical memoir. (Source)

Before jumping into Rushdie’s story, it is necessary to become familiar with his work.  A much quicker route than reading one of his novels would be to watch the following music video by U2.  Bono and the other members of U2 have been friends with Rushdie for a long time.  In fact, the story of exile that you will read is the very thing that brought him into contact with U2.  While working (and at times even living) with Bono, the two of them co-wrote the following piece that became a part of the soundtrack for Bono’s film, “The Million Dollar Hotel.”  The song, entitled “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” is based on one of Rushdie’s novels by the same name. As you watch, listen to the lyrics of the song, as they were written by Rushdie himself.