The Ground Beneath Her Feet

At the beginning of this stunning novel that takes us from India to England and America, Vina Apsara, a famous and much loved singer with a wild and irresistible voice, is caught up in a devastating earthquake and never seen again. This is her story, and that of Ormus Cama, the lover who finds, loses, seeks and again finds her, over and over throughout his own extraordinary life in music. The story of a love that stretches across their whole lives, and even beyond death. Their epic romance is narrated by Ormus's childhood friend and Vina's sometime lover, the photographer Rai, whose voice, filled with stories, anger, wisdom, humour and love, is perhaps the book's true hero. He is a man caught up in the loves and quarrels of the age's goddesses and gods - but he, at least, lives to tell the tale. Their world is filled with unforgettable people who, like them, are caught up in the inspiring, vain, fabulous story of rock'n'roll, in counterculture dreams, the Vietnam war, pirate radio stations, drugs, music and political marches, the rise of corporate power and a society grown greedy. The 'real' history of the world shifts, our memories shift, the uncertain world itself begins to tremble and break. There are glimpses of abysses below the surfaces of things. Twins can speak to each other from beyond the grave, and murder can perhaps be committed by telepathic instruction. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is Salman Rushdie's boldest imaginative act, a vision of our shaken, mutating times. It's also a vivid account of the intimate, flawed encounter between East and West, a remaking of the myth of Orpheus, a novel of high (and low) comedy, high (and low) passion, high (and low) culture. In short: a tale of love, death and rock'n'roll.