First published 1988
Two men, Gibreel and Saladin, plummet from the sky after a plane explosion, miraculously surviving. But strange transformations overtake them - one gaining a halo, the other growing horns. As they tumble through a whirlwind of stories, from a visionary pilgrimage to a prophet's revelation, they find themselves at the center of an eternal battle between the divine and the profane. In this dazzling, kaleidoscopic novel, Salman Rushdie explores the nature of faith, identity, and the blurred lines between the sacred and the sacrilegious.
Genres: fiction, satire, literary-fiction, 20th-century, magical-realism, religion
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Arabia, Bombay, Brickhall, England, Everest, India, London, Spring of Zamzam, Yathrib
Period: 20th-century
547 pages · Hardcover · Viking