Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
{{short description|2015 novel by Salman Rushdie}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{infobox book |
| name = Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (Rushdie novel).png
| image_size =
| caption = Cover of first edition
| author = Salman Rushdie
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series =
| genre = Magic realism{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150908-rushdies-two-years-eight-months-twenty-eight-nights |title=Rushdie's Two Years, Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights |last=Scholes |first=Lucy |date=8 September 2015 |work=BBC |access-date=3 February 2021}}
| publisher = Jonathan Cape
| release_date = 10 September 2015
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print (hardback)
| pages = 286 pp. (hardback)
| isbn = 978-1910702031
| isbn_note = (hardback)
}}
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is a fantasy novel by British Indian author Salman Rushdie published by Jonathan Cape in 2015.
Plot
The novel is set in New York City in the near future. It deals with jinns, and recounts the story of a jinnia princess and her offspring during the "strangenesses". After a great storm, slits between the world of jinns and the world of men are opened and strange phenomena emerge as dark jinnis invade the Earth. The jinnia princess and her children thus need to fight to defend the Earth and the humans from them, the Grand Ifrits. All the while, the Great Philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and the famous theologian Al-Ghazali pursue a philosophical debate about reason and God.
Title
The title is a reference to the 1,001 nights Scheherazade spent telling stories in the Middle-Eastern story of One Thousand and One Nights.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/13/two-years-eight-months-twenty-eight-nights-review-salman-rushdie|title = Two Years, Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights review – stories told against disaster| newspaper=The Observer |date = 13 September 2015 | last1=Wagner | first1=Erica }}
Critical reception
According to Book Marks, the book received "mixed" reviews (or a "B-" {{Cite web |title=Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights|url=http://lithub.com/bookmarks/bookmark/two-years-eight-months-and-twenty-eight-nights|access-date=12 July 2024|website=Book Marks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819171724/http://lithub.com:80/bookmarks/bookmark/two-years-eight-months-and-twenty-eight-nights|archive-date=19 Aug 2016}} ) based on ten critic reviews with two being "rave" and two being "positive" and one being "mixed" and five being "pan".{{Cite web |title=Two Years Eight Months And Twenty-Eight Nights|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/two-years-eight-months-and-twenty-eight-nights/|access-date=12 July 2024 |website=Book Marks}} On Bookmarks November/December 2015 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a {{rating|3|5}} (3.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "Underdeveloped characters, a complicated structure characterized by abrupt shifts in perspective, and repetition bothered some critics; a few also questioned his playful treatment of religious fanaticism and his choice to use a collective, futuristic "we" as a narrator".{{Cite web |title=Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Two+Years+Eight+Months+and+Twenty-Eight+Nights.-a0433685766|access-date=14 January 2023 |website=Bookmarks}}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-04 |title=Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights|url=https://www.bibliosurf.com/Deux-ans-huit-mois-et-vingt-huit-nuits.html|access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Bibliosurf |language=fr}}
In a review of the book in The Guardian, Erica Wagner said that it is a "wonderful" novel and praised Rushdie: "the dark delights that spring from his imagination in this novel have the spellbinding energy that has marked the greatest storytellers since the days of Scheherazade." Also in The Guardian, Ursula K. Le Guin praises the novel's "fierce colours, [...] boisterousness, humour and tremendous pizzazz" and Rushdie's "fractal imagination".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/04/two-years-eight-months-and-twenty-eight-nights-salman-rushdie-review|title = Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty‑Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie review – a modern Arabian Nights| newspaper=The Guardian |date = 4 September 2015 | last1=Guin | first1=Ursula K. Le }}
References
{{Reflist}}
- http://www.thestatesman.com/news/8th-day/end-of-war-conflict-and-tension-but-at-the-cost-of-dreams/89690.html#EyDGcCEU7d8zGP71.99
External links
- [http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8129-9891-7 Publishers Weekly Review]
{{Salman Rushdie}}
{{One Thousand and One Nights|state=expanded}}
Category:Novels by Salman Rushdie
Category:Novels set in the future
Category:Novels set in New York City
Category:Jinn in popular culture
Category:Cultural depictions of Averroes
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