The story is essentially about the War of the Worlds, and in this case, there is the human world "downstairs", and the jinn world "upstairs". You know this idea of genies trapped in bottles? It's that jinn world this book is referring to. And in this case, there are good and bad jinns, and they love wrecking havoc. And of course, humans "downstairs" are affected. Life for humans essentially don't make any sense any more. And this war lasts a thousand and one nights, or as the title alludes to, two years, eight months, and twenty eight nights. During this time, plenty of unexplainable events happen, ranging from people levitating from the ground, to entire ferries being swallowed up by a sea monster.
The plot is rather complicated: there's essentially two philosophers, both long dead, that have a difference in opinion and are against each other. And both of these philosophers have an associated jinn to them. And so their differences in opinion have somehow spilled over into the jinn world, which had spillover effects to the humans, who don't even know they exist. I won't try to replicate the plot here, but nevertheless as much as it was complicated, I also found it quite understandable.
I have to say, reading a Rushdie novel for me is a hit-or-miss in recent times. Thankfully, this is a hit, unlike the previous one, which I felt was overly done. Rushdie's plots are never simple: he has plenty of fantastic ideas that gets crammed up into his books, and sometimes it's just too much. Thankfully, for this one, I felt that it was just right.
Overall I recommend this book. I can imagine this to be a great introduction to Rushdie's oeuvre. For me, I was introduced to his works via the classical titles, e.g. The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children. But I can imagine that this novel would also do nicely. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
See my other book reviews here.
