The fantastic elements of this novel remind many critics of Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum, published in 1959, which tells the story of the build up to the Nazi era in Germany through the eyes of a little boy who wills himself to never grow up.

Midnight's Children is frequently compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude published by Columbian novelist Gabriel García Márquez in 1967. Márquez spins incredible tales into the history of a fictional South American town, Macondo, in what is considered the finest example of the “magical realism” category into which many critics fit Rushdie's novel.

Rohinton Mistry, an Indian author, wrote A Fine Balance (1995), which is set in the India of Indira Gandhi during the declared state of emergency of 1974 and 1975 and covers crackdowns on journalists and political opponents...