Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020Newly collected, revised, and expanded nonfiction from the first two decades of the twenty-first century—including many texts never previously in print—by the Booker Prize–winning, internationally bestselling author Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay Salman Rushdie is celebrated as “a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker), illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time. Gathering pieces written between 2003 and 2020, Languages of Truth chronicles Rushdie’s intellectual engagement with a period of momentous cultural shifts. Immersing the reader in a wide variety of subjects, he delves into the nature of storytelling as a human need, and what emerges is, in myriad ways, a love letter to literature itself. Rushdie explores what the work of authors from Shakespeare and Cervantes to Samuel Beckett, Eudora Welty, and Toni Morrison mean to him, whether on the page or in person. He delves deep into the nature of “truth,” revels in the vibrant malleability of language and the creative lines that can join art and life, and looks anew at migration, multiculturalism, and censorship. Enlivened on every page by Rushdie’s signature wit and dazzling voice, Languages of Truth offers the author’s most piercingly analytical views yet on the evolution of literature and culture even as he takes us on an exhilarating tour of his own exuberant and fearless imagination. |
From inside the book
Síða
I believe that the books and stories we fall in love with make us who we are, or, not to claim too much, that the act of falling in love with a book or story changes us in some way, and the beloved tale becomes a part of our picture of ...
I believe that the books and stories we fall in love with make us who we are, or, not to claim too much, that the act of falling in love with a book or story changes us in some way, and the beloved tale becomes a part of our picture of ...
Síða
The politicization of the Ramayana, and of Hinduism in general, has become, in the hands of unscrupulous sectarian leaders, a dangerous affair. The attack on the book The Hindus—a work of consummate scholarship written by one of the ...
The politicization of the Ramayana, and of Hinduism in general, has become, in the hands of unscrupulous sectarian leaders, a dangerous affair. The attack on the book The Hindus—a work of consummate scholarship written by one of the ...
Síða
To “cross the Lakshman rekha” has become a metaphor for overstepping the boundaries of what is permissible or right, of going too far, of succumbing foolishly to iconoclasm, and bringing down upon yourself dire consequences.
To “cross the Lakshman rekha” has become a metaphor for overstepping the boundaries of what is permissible or right, of going too far, of succumbing foolishly to iconoclasm, and bringing down upon yourself dire consequences.
Síða
For example, there's a legend that King Solomon possessed one that could change its size and become big enough to transport an army: the world's first air force. But in The Arabian Nights, all carpets remain passive and inert.
For example, there's a legend that King Solomon possessed one that could change its size and become big enough to transport an army: the world's first air force. But in The Arabian Nights, all carpets remain passive and inert.
Síða
For certainly he did fall, becoming the father of her children and understanding, as the nights progressed, that his threat of execution had become empty, that he could no longer ask his vizier, her father, to carry it out.
For certainly he did fall, becoming the father of her children and understanding, as the nights progressed, that his threat of execution had become empty, that he could no longer ask his vizier, her father, to carry it out.
What people are saying - Write a review
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
LibraryThing Review
Umsögn notanda - bookboy804 - LibraryThingEngaging, stylish, beautifully written essays on language, storytelling, authors; essays derived from PEN related speeches, introductions, commencement addresses; essays on visual artists. Introduced and reintroduced me to wonderful authors and artists, and engaging ideas. Highly recommended. Read full review
Efni
Heraclitus | |
Another Writers Beginnings | |
Philip Roth | |
Kurt Vonnegut and SlaughterhouseFive | |
Samuel Becketts Novels | |
Cervantes and Shakespeare | |
Hans Christian Andersen | |
Very Well Then I Contradict Myself | |
The Pen and the Sword | |
PEN World Voices Opening Night 2017 | |
The Emperor Akbar and the Making | |
Letters | |
Bhupen Khakhar 19342003 | |
An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar | |
Harold Pinter 19302008 | |
Introduction to The Paris Review Interviews Vol IV | |
Adaptation | |
From Saligia to Oblomov | |
Kara Walker at the Hammer Museum Los Angeles 2009 | |
The Unbelievers Christmas | |
A Personal Engagement with the Coronavirus | |
Aðrar útgáfur - View all
Common terms and phrases
actually adaptation American answer artists asked beautiful became become beginning believe better Bombay British called character close created dead death English example face fact father feel fiction figure freedom give gods hand happened hijras human hundred idea imagination India interesting it’s kind king knew language later learned least less literary literature lives London look lost magic means mind movie nature never night novel once original painting perhaps Persian person picture play political published question readers religious remember Roth seems Shakespeare sometimes speak stand story tell things thought told true truth trying turn understand voice whole women wonder writers wrote young