How to Read Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Book 3

We focus in this episode on the third book and final book of “one of the most important [novels] to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation.” Midnight’s Children (1981) consists of three books narrated by Saleem Sinai: the first about events preceding his birth; the second about his life intertwining with the histories of India and Pakistan; and the third about his experiences after the deaths of his family in bombing raids in 1965. He is embroiled in the 1971 Bangladeshi independence struggle, returns to India, and finally undertakes to preserve his memories in the book we have been reading, before he prophecies his impending death.

Page references throughout refer to the 2006 Vintage Canada edition.