Rushdie My next book will be weird
Sir Salman Rushdie has given an insight into his new novel, saying it will be “very weird”.
The Booker Prize-winning novelist, 71, usually stays quiet about his works in progress, for fear of jinxing his novels.
But the Midnight ’ s Children author, who is in the UK preparing to speak at the London Literature Festiva l , said he was working on the “next damn thing” which should be out next year.
Family and friends of the British author, as well as his publisher, have no idea what he is writing because “it’s the one lifetime superstition that I’ve had”.
“I think if you talk about work in progress, somehow the energy leaks out of it,” he said.
But the Satanic Verses author has shown around 60 pages of a draft to just one person, his agent.
“It ’ s very wei rd,” Sir Salman said.
“I did want someone to tell me whether this is good weird rather than bad weird. So I did show it to my agent and said, ‘Just tell me’.
“And he said, ‘ I think it’s the funniest thing you’ve ever written’.
“Funny is hard – So we’ll see. It’s a very strange book.”
Sir Salman, who is based in the US, has become more prolif ic in recent years, maybe because “I have a sense of running out of time”.
“Sometimes, in writers’ lives, there are little bursts.... [you have to] just ride the wave while it’s there,” he said.