> Skip to content
Read an extract
Play sample
  • Published: 25 July 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529111996
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $35.00

Languages of Truth

Essays 2003-2020




A collection of the finest essays by the 'Best of the Booker' winner, following on from his much-acclaimed STEP ACROSS THIS LINE

From 'Best of the Booker' winner Salman Rushdie, an incisive and inspiring collection of non-fiction essays, criticism and speeches that takes readers on a thrilling journey through the evolution of language and culture.

'One of the greatest writers of our age' Neil Gaiman

Across a wide variety of subjects, Rushdie delves into the nature of storytelling as a deeply human need and what emerges is a love letter to literature itself. Throughout, he shares his personal encounters, on the page and in person, with storytellers from Shakespeare to Toni Morrison and revels in the creative lines that can join art and life. Rushdie considers, too, the nature of truth and looks afresh at migration, multiculturalism and censorship.

'Essential reading... Powerful' Financial Times

'Rushdie is vital, expansive, the critic as storyteller, championing his subjects with gusto' TLS

  • Published: 25 July 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529111996
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $35.00

About the author

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize). A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature and was made a Companion of Honour in the Queen's last Birthday Honours list in 2022.

Also by Salman Rushdie

See all

Praise for Languages of Truth

Salman Rushdie is one of the greatest writers of our age; he is a giant of literature.

Neil Gaiman

Wide-ranging nonfiction pieces by the distinguished novelist, unified by his commitment to artistic freedom and his adamant opposition to censorship in any form . . . Formidably erudite, engagingly passionate, and endlessly informative: a literary treat.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Rushdie's writing is erudite and full of sympathy, brimming with insight and wit . . . Fans will be delighted . . . [A] mesmerizing collection.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Rushdie is vital, expansive, the critic as storyteller, championing his subjects with gusto... Rushdie is a still a writer to be reckoned with.

Claire Lowdon, Times Literary Supplement

Probably the best nonfiction he [Rushdie] has written in years... Rushdie is happy to record just what he sees and feels. You sense that he has arrived somewhere new...a sign of good things to come.

Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, Guardian

Powerful... Languages of Truth feels like essential reading in this time, reminding us that the stories we have told each other over millennia are universal, even if this shared heritage is often lost or forgotten in today's angry, fractured world.

Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times

Enchanting reading... Rushdie is worth listening to.

Fred Kelly, Tablet