Set in an exotic Eastern landscape peopled by magicians and fantastic talking animals, Salman Rushdie’s classic children’s novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories inhabits the same imaginative space as Gulliver’s Travels, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz. Haroun, a 12-year-old boy, sets out on an adventure to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. On the way, he encounters many foes, all intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.
Praise
Winner of the Writers Guild Award
“Though there is darkness and silence at the center of Chup, most of Haroun and the Sea of Stories is full of comic energy and lively verbal invention. . . .Though [the book] is sure to be enjoyed by children, it also contains amusements for adults.” —The New York Times
“As eloquent a defense of art as any Renaissance treatise…saturated with the hyperreal color of such classic fantasies as The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.” —Publishers Weekly
“Fantastical, funny, whooping through drama and comedy, good and evil, introducing creatures delightful or frightening, this joyous and tender book is a whole Arabian Nights entertainment.” —Nadine Gordimer, The Times Literary Supplement
“This is, simply put, a book for anyone who loves a good story. It’s also a work of literary genius.” —Stephen King
“I enjoyed this adventure story.…It involves you at once and keeps you reading, and so it should, for it’s from the same magic land as Sinbad, The Thousand and One Nights, The Golden Fleece.” —Doris Lessing