“Do rats tell tales? Do porpoises have narrative purposes? Do elephants ele-phantasize?... Man alone burns with books.”
- Salman Rushdie, Luka and the Fire of Life.
In Salman Rushdie's latest novel, written for his youngest son Milan, the young hero Luka comes head on with the most impossibly omnipotent enemy of all - Time, itself. The life of Luka's ailing storyteller father, Rashid Khalifa (a.k.a. "The Shah of Blah", "The Ocean of Notions"), hangs-on tenuously as time moves him closer and closer to Oblivion. The only thing that can spare him, for the time being, is the magical Fire of Life.
To retrieve it, young Luka must enter the magical land of his father's fantastical imagination. Full of un-people, deceased gods, magic carpets, video game dimensions, a city of disrespected rats, and the most famous Titan fire-snatcher of all. Together with his faithful companions Dog, the bear, and Bear, the dog, Luka sets out on an impossible quest to defeat Impossibility itself.
Rushdie is perhaps the most linguistically playful and deeply amusing of all contemporary writers. It would be difficult for you to find another novelist who matches Rushdie's flare for pun, wordplay, portmanteau, and general language fun and mayhem. For example, did you know that the sun god Ra speaks in Wingdings? Enjoy translating his powerful hieroglyphic proclamations!
Borrow it through Clevnet. Luka will not let you down!
