Controversial British writer Salman Rushdie is back with his latest novel that blends myth and cold reality, Shalimar the Clown, a story that takes an indepth, fictional, but extremely plausible, look at how a terrorist is made, set in the backdrop of what is said to be terrorism’s front line: Kashmir. The story follows the lives of Maximilian Ophus, born into a wealthy Jewish family in Strasbourg, France, later a Resistance hero, and finally an popular American diplomat; and the title character of the book, Shalimar the Clown, the son from a Muslim family who grew up in startlingly beautiful Kashmir and watched as the region slowly annhilated both itself and his once idyllic life.

Both men’s lives intersect over Boonyi Kaul, a Hindu dancer who was once Shalimar’s childhood sweetheart and wife, but captures the attention of Ophuls and is whisked away to Delhi. The story details Shalimar’s horrifying but realistic descent into a cold-blooded terrorist as Boonyi’s daughter with Max, India, is taken away to America by his cold, British wife where she grows up to lead a life of isolation and indulgence in Los Angeles. The climax of the story — which actually happens within the first few pages of the novel, the reader will soon discover — occurs when Shalimar assassinates Ophuls right in front of his very own daughter and she is now left to confront a torn and ravaged legacy.

The real heart of this tale is both Rushdie’s prose and the story of Kashmir. Rushdie’s style is fluid and poetic, passionate for his telling of Kashmir’s destruction. Shalimar and Ophuls become allegories for larger issues, making for an extremely powerful and moving tale that hauntingly echoes real life.

Read a review of Shalimar the Clown here.