Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, India, to a prosperous Muslim family. After attending Rugby School in England, he studied at Cambridge University, where he earned his master's degree in history. For most of the 1970s he worked as an advertising copywriter in London. His first novel, "Grimus", was published in 1975. He followed this with a brilliant satirical trilogy: "Midnight's Children" (1981), "Shame" (1983), and "The Satanic Verses" (1988). His non-fiction books include: "Imaginary Homelands: Essays & Criticism 1981-1991 ", published in 1991 to critical acclaim worldwide; "The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey", which received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first travel book in 1988; and "Step Across This Line - Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002", which was awarded The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award For Biography in 2003.