In this brilliantly focussed and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986. What he discovered was overwhelming: a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions, of strange heroes and warrior-poets. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the foreign minister - a priest - to the midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room. His perceptions always heightened by his sensitivity and his unique flair for language, in "The Jaguar Smile", Rushdie brings us the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and life-or-death struggles are an everyday occurrence.

About the Author

Salman Rushdie is the author of eight novels, one collection of short stories, and four works of non-fiction, and the co-editor of The Vintage Book of Indian Writing. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. The Moor's Last Sigh won the Whitbread Prize in 1995, and the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

Prizes

An extraordinary and vivid introduction to the country of Nicaragua and its politics

Reviews

Bombay-born novelist Rushdie (Midnight's Children) visited Nicaragua in 1986 and here writes of poetry recitals, political rallies, meetings with peasants, soldiers and members of the opposition. PW noted that Rushdie believes the Sandinistas have made mistakes but that ``the Nicaraguan people have a right not to be `squashed' by the United States.'' (March)

Indian writer Rushdie adds his personal narrative to the crescendo of anti-contra books. He,too, finds little to support unbridled U.S. intervention in violation of international law (as interpreted by the International Court of Justice). Some of his arguments ring loud and clear: How could an oppressive and unpopular government dare to arm the civilian population as the Sandinistas have done? Where are the omnipresent photos of Lenin and Stalin so typical of ``red'' regimes? Isn't the United States engaged in another Chile or Vietnam-like debacle? In his view the Sandinistas see themselves as the saviors of Central American independence and the Nicaraguan people as struggling to maintain a measure of what they have gained. Rushdie writes well and the book is both amusing and informative. Recommended. Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville

"Stirring and original . . . It gives us a picture of the country in bright, patchwork colors unavailable in your usual journalistic dispatches."
"-The New York Times"

"A vivid and probing introduction for perplexed outsiders trying to make sense of Nicaraguan dilemmas."
"-Newsday"

"Extraordinary . . . a masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting graced with [Rushdie's] marvelous wit, quietly assertive style, odd and yet always revealing experiences."
-Edward W. Said