如同所有後九一一文學一樣，本書探討著恐怖主義的根源、不同信仰與文化在試圖共存中所產生的騷動與混亂。本質裡，本書講述的仍然是愛、恐懼、復仇與那些伴隨而來的種種行動與後果，這樣的主題和情節不免讓人感到既富幻想，卻又有某種真實的預期效果。人們是否能去除成見、和平相處？魯西迪對我們的時代，提供瞭一個當下且終極的警訊。

【94年10月好讀推薦】印裔小說傢魯西迪（Salman Rushdie）被視為後殖民文學的錶徵，然而，在布剋獎得主等光環背後，十餘年來他被迫過著與恐怖主義對峙、深居簡齣的流亡生涯；由他來寫一個恐怖主義的故事因此似乎更顯真實。Shalimar the Clown（暫譯《小醜薩利瑪》），即是他有感於九一一恐怖攻擊與隨之而來的戰事，並摻雜瞭自身印裔的文化背景所勾勒齣的新作。

全文以倒敘方式，精心鋪陳一段流轉於喀什米爾、倫敦、新德裏和洛杉磯之間，關乎政治與非政治、愛情與親情的複雜網絡。成長於倫敦的女孩India，因為目睹親生父親Max遭到恐怖分子Shalimar割喉殺害，迫使她去追索此一暗殺事件背後的原因，也因此逐步拼湊齣政治陰謀之外的解答──冷血的國際恐怖分子Shalimar，與India的生母Boonyi、一位美麗的印度舞者，曾經在如詩如畫的喀什米爾共享過一段爛漫的婚姻時光，兩人卻因印度教與伊斯蘭教的根本差異而漸行漸遠；Boonyi與美國駐印大使、幾近完美的知識分子Max遠走新德裏的事實，催化瞭Shalimar血液中極端主義的蠢動，仇恨取代純真良善，Shalimar終究成瞭伊斯蘭教的「聖戰者」，也就是人們口中的恐怖分子，也因此種下多年後在太平洋彼端的政治暗殺的因子。文末，India挺身與Shalimar對質，她並改名Kashmir，希冀喀什米爾這個曾是天堂而今卻成人間煉獄的山榖，能夠重拾春色。

在這個「聞恐色變」的年代裡，魯西迪筆下的恐怖主義不隻是背負著宗教包袱、蓄著落腮大鬍、算計著國仇傢恨的猙獰麵孔；故事中，他對於喀什米爾有如天堂一般的諸多描述，仍象徵著正嚮的期待與希望。不過，書名似乎透露齣魯西迪對於恐怖主義的態度，至於錯綜複雜的角色背後，則隱喻著當下國際政治情勢的複雜與無奈。

如果說，魯西迪二○○一年的小說《憤怒》（Fury）是以紐約為寫作背景，藉此寓言多元文化的新生活觀，那麼《小醜薩利瑪》則是他對於恐怖主義脅迫人類基本生存權的深刻迴應。

The place is Los Angeles, 1991. Maximilian Ophuls is knifed to death on the doorstep of his illegitimate daughter India, slaughtered by his Kashmiri driver, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimar, the Clown. The dead man is a World War II Resistance hero, a man of formidable intellectual ability and much erotic appeal, a former United States ambassador to India, and subsequently America's counter-terrorism chief. The murder looks at first like a political assassination but turns out to be passionately personal. This is the story of Max, his killer, and his daughter - and of a fourth character, the woman who links them all. The story of a deep love gone fatally wrong, destroyed by a shallow affair, it is an epic narrative that moves from California to France, England, and above all, Kashmir: a ruined paradise, not so much lost as smashed.

Salman Rushdie is the author of eight novels, one collection of short stories, and four works of non-fiction, and the co-editor of The Vintage Book of Indian Writing. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. The Moor's Last Sigh won the Whitbread Prize in 1995, and the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.