The Ground Beneath Her Feet

This is Rushdie back at his grandest, writing with an epic sweep. He tells a vast and flowing story that starts, historically, in his much-loved, deeply populated pre-Independence Bombay, spreads across Britain, the USA and Latin America, and deals with the vastness of modern international culture and the world pop scene. It also explores the insecurities that underlie our era: the earthquake-ridden, ever-cracking ground we feel beneath our very modern feet. The story is built around an international pop star and grand celebrity, Vina Apsara, elusive and mythic, who is loved by Ormus Cama, and who at the book's beginning disappears from the Earth. The book is based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but that is simply the beginning: Rushdie's stock of mythic, literary and cultural reference is vast, and his kitty of stories endless. His prose bubbles frantically, wonderfully, taking in a wealth of remembered times and places, a mass of characters, a huge stock of tales. Rushdie is one of our hugest storytellers, and though some of his scenes and characters have become familiar types and tropes, his literary distinction is evident in The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Review by MALCOLM BRADBURY Editor's note: Malcolm Bradbury is the author of several novels, including Eating People is Wrong, and was also co-founder of the trailblazing creative writing course at East Anglia. (Kirkus UK)