The Moor's Last Sigh is the fifth novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Salman Rushdie, and was published in 1995

1995 in literature

The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....

. Set in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n cities of Bombay  and Cochin , it is the first major work that Rushdie produced after the The Satanic Verses

The Satanic Verses

The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters...

affair, and thus is referential to that circumstance in many ways, especially the isolation of the narrator, as well as the shadow of death that seems constantly to hang over him. It is written in the same style as Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie about India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism...

, and raises issues of individuality and the possibility of hybridity in a world moving toward singularity.

Title

The title is taken from the story of Boabdil

Boabdil

Abu `Abdallah Muhammad XII , known as Boabdil , was the twenty-second and last Nasrid ruler of Granada in Iberia. He was also called el chico, the little, or el zogoybi, the unfortunate...

 (Abu Abdullah Muhammed), the last Moorish king of Granada

Granada

Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

, who is also mentioned frequently in the book. The spot from which Boabdil last looked upon Granada after surrendering it is known as Puerto del Suspiro del Moro

Puerto del Suspiro del Moro

Puerto del Suspiro del Moro or Pass of the Moor's Sigh is a mountain pass in the Spanish Sierra Nevada.Muhammad XII, the last Moorish sultan of Granada, and his court are said to have crossed this Alpujarras pass at 860 m in height, after being ejected from Granada by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492...

 ("Pass of the Moor's Sigh"). The mother of the narrator and an artist friend of the mother's each make a painting which they call "The Moor's Last Sigh".

Plot details

The Moor's Last Sigh traces four generations of the narrator's family and the ultimate effects upon the narrator. The narrator, Moraes Zogoiby, traces his family's beginnings down through time to his own lifetime. Moraes, who is called "Moor" throughout the book, is an exceptional character, whose physical body ages twice as fast as a normal person's does and also has a deformed hand. The book also focusses heavily on the Moor's relationships with the women in his life, including his mother Aurora, who is a famous national artist; his first female tutor; and his first love, a charismatic, demented sculptress named Uma.

Awards and nominations

The book won the Whitbread Prize for 'Best novel' in 1995, and the Aristeion Prize

Aristeion Prize

The Aristeion Prize is a European prize, awarded for significant contributions to contemporary literature, and exceptional translations of contemporary literature. The prize is awarded in a different Capital of Culture each year...

 in 1996. The book was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...

 in 1995.

The cover artwork for this book is by Dennis Leigh, more widely known as musician and multi-media artist John Foxx

John Foxx

John Foxx is an English singer, artist, photographer and teacher. He was the original lead singer of the band Ultravox before being replaced by Midge Ure, when he left to embark on a solo career in 1979...

External links

• Information from Random House
  Random House
  Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
  
  . ISBN 0-679-74466-5.
• References in The Moor's Last Sigh