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“Nel momento in cui si dichiara che certe  idee
sono immuni da critica, satira , derisione o biasimo
la libertà di pensiero diventa impossibile.” 
Salman Rushdie was born on 19th June, 1947 in Bombay, India, but he was educated in England.  Before becoming an author, he worked in television and in advertising (pubblicità). He got fame (divenne famoso) with his fourth novel , The Satanic Verses (1988),  a curious story that starts with the two protagonists  flying aboard a jetliner (che volano su un jet di linea). The jet  is blown up (che viene fatto esplodere) by terrorists, but they go on (continuano) with their conversation while falling (mentre cadono) to earth (terra), safe and sound (sani e salvi). The book is quite particular and with a funny  sense of humor, but it was condemned by Muslim religion.  In 1989 Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini condemned Rushdie and his translators and publishers to death for blasphemy, so the author  has spent the rest of his life out of Iran and accompanied by bodyguards. This marked his success: now everybody  knows him and  invites him – he is a celebrity. Other two important novels,  which have received the critic appraisal (approvazione dei critici) are  Midnight’s Children (1981),  a comedy  about Indian history through the eyes (attraverso gli occhi) of a factory worker who knows people’s souls (anime) through the extraordinary powers of his large nose,  and The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995),  probably  a metaphor for his own life as it is about a man who  suffers a strange condition that ages him (lo fa invecchiare)  twice as fast as anyone else (due volte più velocemente di quanto invecchino gli altri). .