(henceforth
Two Years) is the title of Salman Rushdie’s tenth novel. The author has also written two books intended for children, the second of which,
Luka and the Fire of Life(2010) tells a story very similar to what unfolds in
Two Years: a female, a Mother/Goddess figure, fights the battle against the forces of bigotry and evil that threaten to eradicate freedom of thought and expression, and, helped by characters whose courage and determination compensate for their lack of actual power, wins the fight.
The ciphers in the title add up to 1001, the “magical”, palindromic number dramatized in The Arabian Nights, from which Rushdie borrows the figure of the jinn, and the structural device of a multiplicity of embedded stories.
2541 words
Citation: Pesso-Miquel, Catherine. "Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35680, accessed 25 November 2024.]
