Salman Rushdie in conversation

Abstract

This interview with Salman Rushdie took place in May 2017 in Lyon, France, when he answered the questions of students from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and from high schools and universities in Lyon, Paris and Nantes. The novels discussed include Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, The Satanic Verses, Midnight’s Children and Shalimar the Clown. Rushdie reflects on the flexibility of the word “story” for him, on his attraction for cities and on his relation to magic realism and Latin American writers like García Márquez. He talks about the children’s books that have inspired him (The Arabian Nights and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books) as well as the great books he has learned from (Don Quijote, Tristram Shandy, Ulysses). He also refers to the comic dimension of some of his books, the joys and difficulties of translation, and his experience as a screenplay writer.

Keywords:

• Salman Rushdie
• interview
• fantasy
• magic realism
• translation

Acknowledgements

Vanessa Guignery would like to thank Salman Rushdie for granting permission to publish this interview and Cédric Courtois, Diane Gagneret and Mathilde Le Clainche for transcribing it. Photo reproduced by permission of Justine Chapelon.