Two quarrelsome old men in Chennai, India, experience private tragedy during national calamity. Revisiting the Bombay neighbourhood of Midnight's Children, a magical musician is unhappily married to a multibillionaire. In an English university college, an undead academic asks a lonely student to avenge his former tormentor.
These five dazzling works of fiction move between the three countries that Salman Rushdie has called home India, England and America and explore what it means to approach the eleventh hour of life.
Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? How can we bid farewell to the places that we have made home? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
It's never too late for second chances...
For the first time in her life, Lydia is taking a great big leap of faith. She's moving to a small town on the west coast of Ireland to overhaul a large, long-abandoned residence named Chance House with her new husband.
But when things don't go as planned, Lydia is reminded why she doesn't take chances. Suddenly she's facing a very different prospect: a half-finished ramshackle estate, an overgrown garden, dwindling funds, and some difficult choices to make.
Starting over feels impossible.
Staying put feels harder still. But when the local community rallies around her and Lydia is unexpectedly reminded of the power of new beginnings, she realises she might just owe it to herself and them to take a second chance on Chance House.
ISBN 9781399729871