born June 19, 1947, Bombay, India
Indian-British novelist.
Educated at the University of Cambridge, he worked as an advertising copywriter in London in the 1970s before winning unexpected success with Midnight's Children (1981, Booker Prize), an allegorical novel about modern India. His second novel, Shame (1983), is a scathing portrait of politics and sexual morality in Pakistan. The Satanic Verses (1988), which includes among its bizarre happenings some episodes based on the life of Muhammad , was denounced as blasphemous by outraged Muslim leaders, and in 1989 Rushdie was condemned to death by Iran's Ruhollah Khomeini . He became the focus of enormous international attention and was compelled to remain in hiding for years. His later novels include The Moor's Last Sigh (1995) and Fury (2001).