PENGUIN Haroun And The Sea Of Stories

Haroun is one of my all-time favourite books, one that I would choose if I was allowed to read just five books my whole life. It is a crazily wonderful mix of fantasy, fairytale, allegory, humour and activism. Rushdie has reached dazzling, dizzying heights of imagination that leave you breathless with the wonder of it all. How did he do it? asks your bewildered brain. How could he think up such a world?The story begins in a city that is 'so ruinously sad that it has forgotten its name'. In a city full of gloomy people, 11-year old Haroun Khalifa and his parents are the only cheery folks. Haroun's father Rashid is a master storyteller, much in demand across the country for his almost-magical talent to weave enthralling yarns . His mother Soraya is a happy soul who sings all day...till Rashid becomes too busy to pay any attention to home and family, and their sneaky oily snivelling neighbour Mr Sengupta persuades her to ditch her useless husband and elope with him.Haroun blames his father for this tragedy and asks him the fateful question- what's the use of stories that aren't even true? What a terrible question to ask a storyteller! Rashid is quite literally dumbstruck by its brutality- he loses the gift of gab.Haroun, guilty at having robbed his father of his gift, is determined to set things right. He discovers that Rashid was a longtime subscriber of the magic story water service from Kahani, Earth's secret second moon, but now his subscription has been cancelled. How does the second moon stay hidden? How does warm story water from the Sea of Stories on Kahani reach Earth? How did the subscription get cancelled? By P2C2Es, of course- Processes Too Complicated To Explain! :)Haroun flies to Kahani to restart Rashid's subscription- on the back of a mechanical hoopoe bird called Butt, with a Water Genie called Iff. But once he reaches Gup City (the capital of Kahani, inhabited by talkative chatterboxes of all sizes, shapes and species, called Guppees) he discovers that the city is about to go to war with the deadly Khatam Shud. Khatam Shud has kidnapped Princess Batcheat, the princess of Gup City, the daughter of King Chatterjee (!) Power-hungry Khatam Shud (aka The End) is the enemy of speech and stories because in every story is a world that he cannot rule. What's worse, Khatam Shud and his henchmen are creating and releasing poisonous anti-stories in the sea so that all stories in the world are destroyed.Can the Guppees defeat Khatam Shud and end his reign of silence? Can the Sea of Stories be saved from the vile poison of hateful propaganda that Khatam Shud is spewing? Can Princess Batcheat be rescued? (Though with her terrible voice and ridiculous poems, she is best left unrescued!) You have to read the book to know all this and more!Mandatory reading for everyone above the age of 11 years who loves stories.P. S.- The dedication on the first page is heart-breaking if you can decode it. Try it.

I needed to read it as part of the syllabus in 1st sem BA. its a book with simple language and clever puns and analogies. a fun read with a flow of writing that speaks volumes, even in the real world. as for the physical book, genuine in all that it is.

You will enjoy the story.

Book nice. Delivery on time in good condition.

Do not judge this book by the author. this book is whimsical and fable like, soon loses reality into tales. A good read!