“Everyone had learned that it was worth giving up privacy for the merest possibility of fame, and the idea that only a private self was truly autonomous and free had be lost in the static of the airwaves.”

British novelist and essayist, born 1947. His fiction explores identity, colonialism, and cultural displacement through intricate, genre-blending narratives. Known for works like *Midnight’s Children* and *The Satanic Verses*, which sparked global controversy.