THE SATANIC VERSES

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Original blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and tight, the cloth clean and bright. There contents, very lightly toned to the top edge of the closed text block edge, are otherwise clean throughout and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed dustwrapper that is faded to the spine and otherwise bright and without loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£12.95 net to the front flap).

Signed by Salman Rushdie in blue ink on the title page. Rushdie's fourth novel and winner of the 1988 Whitbread Award for novel of the year. The portrayal of Islam and the prophet Mohammed in 'The Satanic Verses' has been interpreted as blasphemous, and the novel became the centre of a long running controversy which sparked multiple protests and book-burnings and has caused the it to be banned in several countries. In 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling for the death of Rushdie and his publishers, which has resulted in the death of the novel's Japanese translator, the severe injuring of the book's Italian translator, Swedish publisher and other individuals associated with the novel, culminating most recently in the 2022 near-fatal stabbing of Rushdie himself whilst he was preparing to give a lecture in Chautauqua, New York. The controversy has ignited world-wide debate on the place of the arts and freedom of expression as they relate to religion and politics which is still ongoing over thirty years after the book's publication.