Luka and the Fire of Life: A Novel
By Salman Rushdie
Summary
"With the same dazzling imagination and love of language that have made Salman Rushdie one of the great storytellers of our time, Luka and the Fire of Life revisits the magic-infused, intricate world he first brought to life in the modern classic Haroun and the Sea of Stories. This breathtaking new novel centers on Luka, Haroun’s younger brother, who must save his father from certain doom.
For Rashid Khalifa, the legendary storyteller of Kahani, has fallen into deep sleep from which no one can wake him. To keep his father from slipping away entirely, Luka must travel to the Magic World and steal the ever-burning Fire of Life. Thus begins a quest replete with unlikely creatures, strange alliances, and seemingly insurmountable challenges as Luka and an assortment of enchanted companions race through peril after peril, pass through the land of the Badly Behaved Gods, and reach the Fire itself, where Luka’s fate, and that of his father, will be decided.
Filled with mischievous wordplay and delving into themes as universal as the power of filial love and the meaning of mortality, Luka and the Fire of Life is a book of wonders for all ages."
-Goodreads.com
Quotations
“ ‘You wanna know what bugs me?’ it said indignantly. Nobody’s friendly about fire. Oh it’s fine in it’s place, people say it makes a nice glow in a room, but keep an eye on it in case it gets out of control, and always put it out before you leave. Never mind how much it’s needed; a few forests burned by wildfires, the occasional volcanic eruption. And there goes our reputation. Water on the other hand!-hah!-hah! There’s no limit to the praise water gets. Floods, rains, burst pipes, they make no difference. Water is everyone’s favorite, and they call it fountain of life!-bah! -well that just bugs me to bits. The fire bug dissolved briefly into a little cloud of angry, buzzing sparks then came together again. ‘Fountain of life indeed,’ it hissed. ‘What an idea. Life is not a drip. Life is a flame. What do you imagine the sun is made of? Raindrops? I don’t think so. Life is not wet young man life burns.”