Shalimar

Is Salman Rushdie's new book any good? Yes. Some parts of it read like action thrillers (written by someone with perfect command of the English language). Some parts of it have amazing historical depth: Rushdie points out that our failures to adjust our policies after the cold war actually made Al Qaeda possible. Some parts are just preposterous and ride on forced allegories. Why do we need the Ukrainian lady, introduced on page 1, in the book?

Memorable characters in the book: colonel Hammir, who suffers from too vivid and good memory.