This is my first book review and first time reading Salman Rushdie, an excellent introduction to his work. Through these five short stories, Mr. Rushdie's prose pulls the reader into the meticulously crafted settings while exploring themes of aging and death. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yay, I've done it! I've finally read a Salman Rushdie book. I've been fascinated by him ever since I learned about The Satanic Verses controversy years ago, but his books are generally long and dense and I am a lazy reader these days. When I saw this short collection of stories pop up on NetGalley, however, I knew it was time to give him a chance.

And, well, this was good. His prose is lyrical but not overwrought, and there's just something about his writing style that I really enjoy. It did feel a bit like reading a classic novel, however, and had I picked up this book blindly, I would not have been at all surprised to find out that it had been written a century ago. This isn't at all a bad thing, but I guess my point is that it isn't necessarily an easy read. There's a fair amount of philosophizing and soul searching by the characters within, and it's not a book you can blast through in the same way you would the newest John Grisham novel.

The Eleventh Hour focuses heavily on the themes of old age and death, and, in one case, even life after death. There are stories within stories and ghostly visits from Hieronymus Bosch. There are tsunamis and deep symbolism (I still have no idea what that last story was about but it was lovely) and languages personified. There are characters who mysteriously disappear and characters with regrets and characters who are obviously based on a certain WWII codebreaker done dirty. There's humor and seriousness. Some of the stories feel as if they're from a different age while still addressing modern-day issues. And the writing … have I mentioned that the writing is outstanding? I mean, just listen to it:

"When the king married not one but two of his nieces, the word incest was simply expunged from the lexicon and made illegal to use; and after that it became necessary to make other changes to the dictionary, to redescribe rape as love, horror as patriotism, bullying as good governance, war as peace, freedom as slavery, and ignorance as strength, so as to ensure that the absolute monarch had absolute power over the language itself, over vocabulary and syntax and metaphor and fable, and to turn the world upside down, so that it would only mean what the monarch wished it to mean.”

Rushdie is obviously brilliant, and his writing is just as brilliant as he is.

So, yeah. I enjoyed this quintet of stories and I'm thinking that perhaps it's time to finally pick up The Satanic Verses and see what all the fuss is about.

My overall rating: 4.5 stars, rounded up. Four stars for the stories themselves, but five stars for the delightful writing found within the stories.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is November 4, 2025.

This collection of five stories exploring lives nearing their ends is deeply moving. Having studied to become a death doula myself, these stories resonated with me, Rushdie’s writing is lyrical and profound.

While not a 5 star book, this collection of stories is fun, and I really liked the one about the atheist academic ghost. None of the stories were awful, though the last one dragged a bit. I am more used to Rushdie's longer fiction, but this was a good book, worth reading, and fans of Rushdie's work should enjoy this book.

The Eleventh Hour is vintage Salman Rushdie—a writer operating at the peak of his powers. One of the five stories, “The Musician of Kahani,” takes us back to the world of Midnight’s Children and will surely leave some readers teary-eyed. Every story in this collection is a meditation on death and endings, making it a fitting work for Rushdie after his near-death experience. Giving away any more details about this book would do the author a disservice. Instead, I would highly recommend it and suggest multiple readings to fully grasp the meaning behind each story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.

In The Eleventh Hour, celebrated author Salman Rushdie presents five short stories exploring themes of mortality, memory, and the meaning of life. ‘In the South’ follows two lifelong friends whose contentious relationship is changed forever by a tragic accident that occurs amidst a national disaster. ‘The Musician of Kahani’ revisits a well-known setting from the author’s earlier work to tell the tale of an artistically gifted woman trapped in a regrettable marriage deciding to use her musical talent as a weapon of revenge. ‘Late’ features the shade of a university fellow who enlists an exchange student to help him avenge a life-altering act of humiliation. In ‘Oklahoma,’ a struggling writer tries to unravel whether the disappearance of his mentor was due to suicide or the intentional withdrawal from his former life. ‘The Old Man in the Piazza’ offers a fable about free speech, as an elderly man confronts the canceling forces of society and the nature of language itself.

Thematically, the entire collection is unified by its consideration of the “eleventh hour”—metaphorically, the final stage of life—and the myriad forms of reckoning it demands. Rushdie examines questions of legacy, identity, and the tension between serenity, rage, and resolution in the face of one’s eventual demise. These stories echo ideas from his previous works: the magical realism and familial entanglements of Midnight’s Children, the moral trials and tribulations of The Satanic Verses, and the metafictional playfulness of Quichotte. The settings for these tales—India, England, and the United States—even mirror the author’s own geographical journey, and his characters’ struggles reflect his long-standing concerns with exile, voice, and resistance. The stories are infused with both a sense of urgency and an air of defiance, undoubtedly reflecting Rushdie’s personal experience surviving a near-fatal personal attack.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and found it to be a worthy addition to the estimable catalog of one of my favorite writers. The prose is lyrical and occasionally laced with satirical wit, while the narrative structures themselves are inventive and emotionally satisfying. While each story had its merits, the ones that resonated most deeply with me were ‘The Musician of Kahani’ and ‘Late,’ which were the two longest tales in the volume—bordering on being novellas, in fact, wherever that line is drawn these days—and came closest to capturing the essence of the sort of fiction Rushdie has long been known for. The author’s ability to blend the fantastical with the deeply personal remains a strength of his fiction, and this collection is as much a celebration of life as it is a thoughtful consideration of what it means to face the end game with eyes wide open. The Eleventh Hour is an easy book to recommend, especially to long-time readers of this remarkable writer.

Wow! One of the best short story collections I have ever read! These stories will make you think and are very relevant to what the world is experiencing today.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I should begin by admitting that Salman Rushdie is my favorite author so, while everything I say is true, I am a tiny bit biased.
The Eleventh Hour is a meditation on the final chapter of life. It's a topic that's universal - how do we spend those final moments? How do we come to terms with death? How do we say goodbye? His characters are, as always, absurdly human and imperfect as such. His writing is reflective and humorous at the same time. What else is there to say - it's a wonderful book and I look forward to adding it to my collection permanently.

I really enjoyed getting into this collection of stories, it had that elmeent that I was looking for and worked well in the genre. I was invested in what was going on in the writing from Salman Rushdie. I enjoyed each story and how the story was used in this and was glad I got to get into this world and collection of stories.

While I am not a big fan of short story format, for I believe there are very few authors who can excel in this format (Jhumpa Lahiri, for one), I will always make an exception for Rushdie.

This is another excellent work from the writer with magic (and magical realism) oozing from his pen. There is a lot of new and there is also a bit of venturing into old haunts of Midnight's Children. As always, if you understand all the allusions, it is a magical ride. If you don't, it is still a thrilling ride nonetheless.

Incredibly grateful to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

This collection of short stories explores legacy and how we reflect on our lives as we enter into our final chapters. The stories are profound yet funny and brought to life with prose that makes you want to stop and re-read a second time. Salman Rushdie is one of the greatest writers alive and these stories showcase why.

I want to say that this is vintage Rushdie, but no, this is modern-day Rushdie. It could be today. Right now. The Eleventh Hour is a 5-story collection written with Rushdie's poetic voice. I'm not a short-story aficionado -- please don't come at me -- but I am an avowed Rushdie devotee, and each of these stories is a miniature world, a perfection. Each could be the seed of a novel, but together they resonate emotionally, particularly to those of us suffering through the agonies of the Trump eras and the return of capital-F fascism and demagoguery to the world stage, as it leaves us stunned, depressed, and enraged.

Rushdie is a global citizen, and these pieces take place in England, America, and, of course, India. Perhaps as a result of Mr. Rushdie's near-murder, these stories have death at their centers, but, as they say, it's complicated. "In the South" centers around the death of one of two longtime friends/neighbors, but it's also about the nature of friendship in a very particular way that those of us who complain about our friends will recognize. "The Musician of Kahani" takes us back to the locale of "Midnight's Children," with magic realism rearing its head -- and music --- the female voice -- demanding its due. In this story, we in 2025 will recognize the ultra rich cousins of our American oligarchy and celebrigarchy, which isn't yet a term but welcome to the language, portmanteau.

This leads me to the final story, "The Old Man in the Piazza," which lives in the realm of metaphor personified. Here Rushdie explores the nature of language -- deftly wielding his facility with such -- while also presenting us with the question: Who do we believe and why? And throughout the entire collection, we are face-to-face with the issue of free speech, of voice, and of the personal power inherent in it.

In the other two pieces, there is a delicious ghost haunting the hallowed halls of Cambridge, and, in "Oklahoma," a pointed exploration of the nature of mentorship, and the ramifications of betrayal by a beloved mentor. Oh, and, also thrown into that stewpot: a faked death... maybe.

With every new book, Mr. Rushdie's powers expand, and what this reader most appreciates is the way he reflects the age for those of us living it alongside him. Long may he write.

Wholeheartedly recommend.