Describes a family's struggle to get their mother properly buried, while they encounter catastrophes of flood and fire, as well as the chaos of their own feelings.

"Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the exact moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai becomes inextricably linked to that of his nation and is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirror modern India's course."--from NoveList.

Tough, cynical PI Sam Spade, a man who, as his creator explained, is "able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with," is hired by the story's irresistible femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy, to locate the client's sister by tailing her companion. Spade's partner, Miles Archer, takes on the assignment, and quickly both he and the man he was shadowing are murdered. As Spade pursues the mystery...

A parody of life in colonial America relates the adventures of Ebenezer Cooke who became the poet laureate of Maryland.