Haroun and the Sea of Stories

When I was a kid I really liked fantasy stories with certain kind of wonders in them. I loved Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, I binged on wonder-centered folk tales, and reread Wilhelm Hauff's collection dozens of times. Something in the Haroun and the Sea of Stories reminds me exactly that - the feeling of awe and adventure, being engulfed in a brand new, yet somehow deeply familiar fantasy world. And I enjoyed it very much.

This was also an Audible daily deal. I already owned a used paperback copy, but someone thoroughly marked it up, which I hate (and did not notice before buying.) I thought the audiobook version would be a good alternative, especially since it’s a fairly short book. Rushdie pitched the book a little younger than I was expecting, but I didn’t mind that so much. It was a fun adventure that reminded me a bit of Catherine Valente’s Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own (presumably the influence flowed the other way, but still.)

Once again, Rushdie reminds me why I love this writer so much. This is a story about storytelling and it is simply beautiful. The main character, Haroun, is the son of a well-known storytelling, Rashid, otherwise known as the Shah of Blah (love it!). When Haroun's mother runs away with another man, Rashid's gift of the gab simply deserts him. To save his faterh, Haroun must travel to a mystical land (on the Earth's second, hidden moon, no less) to recover Rashid's talent. It reminded me of "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Geared towards anyone who appreciates a good story with a dash of socio-political commentary thrown in.

Um dos melhores livros que já li, com certeza! A narrativa é fantástica, não deixando de ser singela e simples; os personagens são maravilhosamente bem construídos. O mundo que Salman Rushdie nos apresenta nesse livro é absoluta e assustadoramente similar ao nosso, com um ótimo jogo de palavras e trocadilhos.
Um livro realmente marcante, do tipo que deveria ser lido por todos, pois sua linguagem é simples, mas sua mensagem é forte e importante. É raro ver livros que tratem do assunto de contação de histórias de uma forma tão bem elaborada e tão cativante quanto esse livro de Rushdie.
Sua história é repleta de personagens bem construídos e cativantes, e ela se desenrola de um jeito que é quase inesperado.
Foi o primeiro livro que li do autor, mas certamente não será o último.

What a delightful story! There are many blurbs on the back and front of this book, and I agree with all of them: it is Swiftian, it is written on more than one level (fable, fantasy, allegory), and it is wonderfully inventive. Haroun and the Sea of Stories can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

This book was written after Satanic Verses, and is very much about the freedom of speech and the right to be creative. *take a look at the very back of the book, where the author explains the names of the places and characters, which are derived from Hindustani words. It's not essential to understanding the story, but it's very interesting:)