Published in 1990, Haroun and the Sea of Stories is both the first novel that Salman Rushdie wrote for children and the first novel that he wrote during what has come to be known as the “Rushdie Affair”. In 1989, following the publication of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses the previous year, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa, calling upon Muslims around the world to kill Rushdie on account of that novel’s supposed blasphemy. As a result, Rushdie spent a decade in hiding, and it was in the early stages of this period that he wrote Haroun. Asked in an interview with Blake Morrison in 1990 whether Haroun was “anything to do with [his] situation now”, Rushdie responded “Heavens, no,…
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Citation: Perfect, Michael. "Haroun and the Sea of Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4853, accessed 22 November 2024.]
