On ‘Radio Times’: Salman Rushdie, over the rainbow

Novelist Salman Rushdie may be best known for his novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which forced him into hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him. But that was decades ago and Rushdie has since written a number of acclaimed novels, children’s books, and essays.

Rushdie was a guest on Radio Times Thursday, talking with Marty Moss-Coane about his new novel, “The Golden House,” which centers on a wealthy immigrant family in New York and the secrets they are trying to hide.

The story is also political, beginning with Obama’s inauguration and ending with the Presidential election of a character called, The Joker.

The conversation was wide-ranging, from his novels and politics, to hate speech on college campuses and The Wizard of Oz.  Rushdie is a big fan of The Wizard of Oz and wrote it in a New Yorker essay in 1992.  He says it’s a classic immigrant tale about “someone coming to a strange land and having to make their way.”  He told Marty about an interesting correspondence he had with one of the movie’s Munchkins.

Listen to the clip above.