Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s most important writers of politicised fiction. He is a self-proclaimed controversialist, capable of exciting radically divergent viewpoints, a novelist of extraordinary imaginative range and power, and an erudite, and often fearless, commentator upon the state of global politics today. In this comprehensive and lucid critical study, Andrew Teverson examines the intellectual, biographical, literary and cultural contexts from which Rushdie’s fiction springs in order to help the reader make sense of the often complex debates that surround the life and work of this major contemporary figure. Teverson also offers detailed critical readings of all Rushdie’s novels, from Grimus through to Shalimar the Clown . Amongst the subjects considered in this study are: the intellectual and theoretical basis of Rushdie’s political thought, his use of the English language, his engagement with the established literary traditions of East and West, his involvement with diverse literary and filmic genres (including science fiction, satire and tragedy), his analysis of the interlinked processes of globalisation and mass-migration, and his relationship with the current discourses of postcolonialism and postmodernism. This definitive guide will be of interest to those working in the fields of contemporary world writing in English, postcolonial studies, twentieth and twenty-first century British literatures, and studies in the novel.