SOURCE: "Rushdie: Caught on the Fly," in Time, Vol. 147, No. 3, January 15, 1996, p. 70.

In the following essay, based on an interview with the author, Gray discusses the controversial nature of Rushdie's writing.

"My last novel, to put it mildly, divided its readers," says Salman Rushdie. That is putting it mildly indeed: his last novel was The Satanic Verses, which drew him the enmity of much of the Islamic world seven years ago. Since then things have changed, Rushdie hopes, for the better (though he is still subject to Ayatullah Knomeini's death sentence). On the phone from Australia, Rushdie talks enthusiastically of the "wonderful reception" his new book, The Moor's Last Sigh, has already received in far-flung swatches of the globe, many of which he has openly visited. "I've been in, I think, 11 countries other than England since September, including stops across Europe, Latin America and Australia. This book coming...