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60 free Salman Rushdie trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Salman Rushdie trivia quiz covers one of the most celebrated and most threatened writers alive. The easy questions are the ones any reader can answer: where he was born, the novel that won the Booker and then the Booker of Bookers, the book that provoked a fatwa and the leader who issued it. From there it moves into his early life, from the Wizard of Oz that made a writer of him to the advertising slogans he wrote for cream cakes and American Express before Midnight's Children made his name. The harder end is for literature students and pub-quiz specialists: the science-fiction debut nobody read, the Pakistan novel that lost the Booker, the alias he used in hiding, the translators who were attacked, the exploding book bomb in Paddington, the annual unfunny Valentine from Iran, the U2 song he wrote lyrics for, his cameo in Bridget Jones's Diary, the memoirs Joseph Anton and Knife, and the fifteenth novel about a woman who dreams a city into being. His five marriages, his knighthood and his eye are covered too. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the author, his novels and the fatwa before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Booker Prize, Indian literature and famous authors quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Salman Rushdie born in 1947?
Bombay
He was born into a Kashmiri Muslim family two months before Indian independence.
Q 02In which year did Midnight's Children win the Booker Prize?
1981
It was later named the best of all winners on the prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries.
Q 03In how many countries was The Satanic Verses banned?
20
Numerous killings and bombings were carried out by extremists citing the book.
Q 04Which Iranian leader issued the fatwa against Rushdie?
Ruhollah Khomeini
According to his son, Iran's supreme leader never read the book.
Q 05On what date was the fatwa proclaimed on Radio Tehran?
14 February 1989
It was Valentine's Day and also the day of his friend Bruce Chatwin's funeral.
Q 06What did Rushdie's father name the family after?
The philosopher Ibn Rushd
He revealed this in his memoir Joseph Anton.
Q 07Which film did Rushdie say made a writer of him when he first saw it?
The Wizard of Oz
He also loved Alice, Swallows and Amazons and, at 16, The Lord of the Rings.
Q 08Which English public school did Rushdie attend after emigrating in 1961?
Rugby
He went on to read history at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1968.
Q 09What subject did Rushdie study at King's College, Cambridge?
History
He graduated with a BA in 1968.
Q 10Which product's slogan Naughty but Nice did Rushdie write as an advertising copywriter?
Cream cakes
He also coined irresistibubble for Aero and That'll do nicely for American Express.
Q 11At which advertising agency was Rushdie working when he wrote Midnight's Children?
Ogilvy & Mather
He became a full-time writer after the novel's success.
Q 12What was Rushdie's largely ignored 1975 debut novel?
Grimus
It was a science fiction tale.
Q 13What is the name of the protagonist of Midnight's Children, born at the stroke of India's independence?
Saleem Sinai
He is endowed with special powers and a connection to the other children born at that hour.
Q 14Rushdie's 1983 novel Shame is set in a version of which country?
Q 21Which band recorded a song called The Ground Beneath Her Feet with lyrics by Rushdie?
U2
Bono had been calling Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour.
Q 22At which London stadium did Rushdie make a surprise public appearance during a U2 concert in August 1993?
Wembley
It was a rare public outing despite the danger of the fatwa.
Q 23Which 1995 Rushdie novel is a family saga spanning a century of India's past?
The Moor's Last Sigh
His story collection East, West had appeared the previous year.
Which Mughal emperor's court is visited by a European in The Enchantress of Florence (2008)?
Pakistan
Its characters are based on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Zia-ul-Haq, and it was a close Booker runner-up.
Q 15Which Central American country was the subject of Rushdie's 1987 non-fiction book The Jaguar Smile?
Nicaragua
He had once been a neighbour of Madame Somoza, wife of the former dictator.
Q 16Who are the two protagonists of The Satanic Verses, both Indian Muslim actors?
Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha
They fall from a hijacked plane that explodes over the English Channel.
Q 17Which prize did The Satanic Verses win in 1988?
The Whitbread Award
It was a Booker finalist but lost to Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda.
Q 18Which children's novel did Rushdie write in the shadow of the fatwa and dedicate to his son?
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
It is an allegorical defence of the power of stories over silence.
Q 19What is the name of the villain who represents the end in Rushdie's 1990 children's novel?
Khattam-Shud
The story begins in a city so miserable it has forgotten its name.
Q 20Rushdie's 1999 novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet retells which myth with rock stars?
Orpheus and Eurydice
One of its lyrics became the basis of a U2 song, with Rushdie credited as lyricist.
Akbar
Ursula Le Guin praised it as a sumptuous mixture of history with fable.
Q 25Which classic did Rushdie retell in his 2019 novel Quichotte?
Don Quixote
The Golden House, a satire of contemporary America, preceded it in 2017.
Q 26What is the name of the woman who breathes an empire into existence in Rushdie's 2023 novel Victory City?
Pampa Kampana
She is cursed with a 247-year lifespan and her city Bisnaga is inspired by Vijayanagara.
Q 27What was the secret alias Rushdie used while in hiding, later the title of his 2012 memoir?
Joseph Anton
He combined the first names of two favourite writers.
Q 28On what date did the UK and Iran break diplomatic relations over the Rushdie affair?
7 March 1989
Relations were only restored in 1998 after Iran pledged not to support assassination attempts.
Q 29What happened to Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, in 1991?
He was stabbed to death
Its Italian translator was stabbed days earlier and survived; the Norwegian publisher was shot in 1993.
Q 30Where was Hitoshi Igarashi an associate professor of comparative Islamic culture?
University of Tsukuba
His murder remains one of the darkest episodes of the affair.