Covering the second of three books in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981), in which the narrator Saleem Sinai recounts the history of his life from 1947 to 1965. He learns that his parents are more complex than he knew, his family is his by adoption rather than by birth, and that his own mind is like a radio receiver for the thoughts of 1,001 other children born with the nation of India.

Page references throughout refer to the 2006 Vintage Canada edition.