Midnight’s Children: A Milestone in the History of English Literature

Abstract

Midnight’s Children is the second novel of Salman Rushdie that catapulted him to great success
in the history of English literature. In the year 1981, the novel won both the Booker Prize and the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize. During the celebration of 25 th and 40th anniversary of Booker
Prize, the novel also won the “Booker of Bookers’’ prize in the year 1993 and 2008,
respectively. Before becoming a full-time writer, Rushdie worked as a copywriter in advertising
agency. His first novel “Grimus” didn’t give him as much fame as his second novel “Midnight’s
Children” did. This novel established him as a great writer in the history of English literature.
The novel is about 10001 children born at the time of midnight when India gained its
independence. Salman Rushdie in this novel highlights the complexities of lives of people born
during the night of independence of India. The narrator and protagonist of the story, Saleem
Sinai is also one of them. In this novel the author has portrayed the post -independence history of
India and brought the spirit of the magic in the novel. The magic in the novel is contained in the
readers’ interpretation of the mysterious unseen hidden parts of the lives of the children born at
midnight.