Containing 74 essays, this book covers a range of subjects including the literature of the perceived masters and of Rushdie's contemporaries, the politics of colonialism and the ironies of culture, film, politicians, the Labour Party, racial prejudice and the preciousness of free expression.

Imaginary HomelandsIntroduction1 Imaginary Homelands"Errata": Or, Unreliable Narration in Midnight's ChildrenThe Riddle of Midnight: India, August 19872 CensorshipThe Assassination of Indira GandhiDynastyZia ul-Haq. 17 August 1988Daughter of the East3 "Commonwealth Literature" Does Not ExistAnita DesaiKiplingHobson-Jobson4 Outside the WhaleAttenborough's GandhiSatyajit RayHandsworth SongsThe Location of Brazil5 The New Empire within BritainAn Unimportant FireHome FrontV. S. NaipaulThe Painter and the Pest6 A General ElectionCharter 88On Palestinian Identity: A Conversation with Edward Said7 Nadine GordimerRian MalanNuruddin FarahKapuscinski's Angola8 John BergerGraham GreeneJohn le CarreOn AdventureAt the Adelaide FestivalTravelling with ChatwinChatwin's TravelsJulian BarnesKazuo Ishiguro9 Michel TournierItalo CalvinoStephen HawkingAndrei SakharovUmberto EcoGunter GrassHeinrich BollSiegfried LenzPeter SchneiderChristoph RansmayrMaurice Sendak and Wilhelm Grimm10 Gabriel Garcia MarquezMario Vargas Llosa11 The Language of the PackDebrett Goes to HollywoodE. L. DoctorowMichael Herr: An InterviewRichard FordRaymond CarverIsaac Bashevis SingerPhilip RothSaul BellowThomas PynchonKurt VonnegutGrace PaleyTravels with a Golden AssThe Divine Supermarket12 Naipaul Among the Believers"In God We Trust"In Good FaithIs Nothing Sacred?One Thousand Days in a Balloon