This is a collection of five short stories. It is a fun and diverse collection.

It gets five stars from me for the fourth story, Oklahoma, which I loved. Its intricate structure is achieved with a light touch and it explores tropes about writing and literature with convincing originality and unity.

The other stories are also diverting and imaginative. Two of them were previously published in the New Yorker.

I am grateful to have received a review copy from Jonathan Cape and NetGalley.

A brilliant selection of 5 short stories showcasing Rushdie's immense talent. It's rare that I enjoy every single short story in a collection but these were all five stars each.
The theme of death and aging was present throughout though approached in very different ways in each tale. My personal favourite was The Musician of Kahani but the power of The Old Man in the Piazza was also undeniable.

4.5 stars

I had actually pre-ordered this, but due to financial difficulties I had to cancel it, and so I was thrilled when Jonathan Cape sent me an e-arc. I adore Salman Rushdie's work and was super excited to give this a read.

It is quite intense - I didn't expect anything less really - but the relative short page length ensures it doesn't get too overwhelming.

It had the potential to be quite disheartening, a bit morbid, as there's a lot of talk about death and whatnot, but somehow he's framed it in a way that makes it realistic, somehow uplifting, but tender and sensitive.

There are a number of stories in this book with a number of characters, but they do come together thematically which was nice. And it gave us time to get to know each character and their story individually. I'm not usually a short story person and to be honest, I wanted to read this on the merit of being a Salman Rushdie book, and so I didn't actually know it was short stories, but it was fine. Like most collection of stories, there were some I liked better than others, and others I struggled with, but overall they are a thought-provoking bunch.

It's got a poetical feel to the writing, and in that sense there's always a worry it will be more style than substance, but he's given us both. Whether you like the actual story or not, there's no denying his brilliance at storytelling.

Another review said it felt like reading a classic, and I hadn't thought of that but I think I agree. Classics can be hard to get through, and whilst this wasn't necessarily hard to get through, there is a lot of character development and theorising, rather than action or plot, and so in that sense it did have a classical feel to it. And if I'm honest, I think Salman's books are likely to become classics in their own right.

There's death and the afterlife, the meaning of life and death, language, family, and love - it's intense but enjoyable.

The latest work by Salman Rushdie, The Eleventh Hour, is a collection of five short stories, two of which have previously been published in The New Yorker. For this collection Rushdie's eye is global - the stories take place in India, England and America - all places he has called home. The stories are infused with a sense of impending mortality - perhaps unsurprisingly given his near fatal attack and age - but the stories also contain a comic voice, a playfulness which imbues his stories with a sense of magic. This then is vintage Rushdie and contemporary Rushdie in one.

I thoroughly enjoyed each of the stories here - I read one an evening to draw out the pleasure the richness of his prose provides - and struggle to identify a favourite. They are all great. Tonally there are differences between them, which makes for a great collection (some short story collections I can find one-note). I will say if you've enjoyed any Rushdie book in the past you will find something to love here. If you've not read him before, this is an accessible primer to his themes and interests. Overall very much worth reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.