It has been long in coming. And when the author of Midnight’s Children and Satanic Verses pens a book, it will no doubt attract hype. The book is on extremism; of two Kashmiri villages whose inhabitants get caught up in communal violence. Critics agree that Salman Rushdie has brilliantly unravelled the construction of terrorists: some of them fight for ideas; others fight to fulfil vows or, if they are men, to reclaim their wives. Despite a few drawbacks—his female characters are not as plausible as the male ones and he often resorts to pop culture when he tries to describe places—the book is a powerful read. It is at once a “political thriller, folk tale, slapstick comedy, wartime adventure, and work of science fiction, pop culture, and magical realism”.