Polirom recently published Rushdie’s „The Enchantress of Florence”, translated by Dana Craciun, who also translated „The Satanic Verses” two years ago.
Published in Britain in 2008, „The Enchantress of Florence” is Rushdie’s most researched book, which required „years and years of reading”, as the author said.
Nominated last year for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, the novel was received with unprecedented enthusiasm by critics and readers alike as one of his best novels so far.
Born in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1947, Rushdie left India for England at age 13 and was schooled at the prestigious King’s College in Cambridge. After graduation, he moved to Karachi, Pakistan, and returned to Britain to become a full-time writer after a brief job in television.
Rushdie made his literary debut in 1975, with „Grimus”, but the novel that brought him world fame was 1981’s „Midnight’s Children”, which received the Booker prize in 1981 and the Booker of Bookers in 1993.
After „Midnight’s Children” came „Shame” (1983), „The Satanic Verses” (1988), which brought him a death sentence in Iran, „Haroun and the Sea of Stories ” (1990), „The Moor’s Last Sigh” (1995),”The Ground Beneath Her Feet” (1999), „Fury” (2001) and „Shalimar the Clown” (2005), all translated in Romanian and published in Romania by Polirom.
Besides these works of fiction, Polirom has also published translations of Rushdie’s essays, interviews and reviews, „Imaginary Homelands” (1992), the short stories of „East, West ” (1994) and a vast anthology of essays and recollections, „Step across this Line” (2002).
Rushdie was recently knighted for services to literature, a gesture which stirred violent reactions among Muslim protesters who recalled the controversy stirred with the release of „The Satanic Verses” nearly 20 years before.