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For readers new to Rushdie,“The Musician of Kahani” is the story to read first. Ranging over several decades, its young female protagonist possesses magical talents comparable with the protagonist of“Midnight's Children” (2008), Saleem Sinai. This was the book that cemented Rushdie as a globally significant author.

The“Musician of Kahani” indulges in renaming – one of Rushdie's preoccupations. Mumbai becomes Kahani (meaning story) and its streets are renamed, enjoyably, after literature: William Shakespeare Bunder, Dahl Market, Petit Prince Parade. Events pivotal to the plot are handled out of sequence, presented like delightful gossip and we understand plot is incidental: storytelling is what matters.

The third story in the collection,“Late”, is set in an Oxbridge college. Simon Merlyn (S.M.) Arthur is the“late” protagonist of the title. The honorary college fellow and renowned novelist of a single book, he wakes to find himself unexpectedly dead at 61. Unmoved, he ponders the nature of the mind and body, life, death and the afterlife.

The story assembles cliches of England: Oxbridge, the Second World War, contingent multiculturalism, colonialism's falsely genteel face and the weather. However, it is also about English literature, myth and legend, and rejuvenation. Set“50-something” years ago, it reveals an author prevented from achieving his potential.

Rushdie discussed the knife attack in an episode of 60 Minutes.

Rosa, an undergraduate from India entrusted to organize S.M's papers, can communicate with his ghost, and uncovers sadness and betrayal.

Rosa is a version of Rushdie, perhaps: the story is peppered with anecdotes from his life, including advertising slogans (Rushdie was an advertising copywriter famous for “Naughty But Nice.” ) Rosa also stumbles upon transformative archival materials. In Rushdie's own experience, these materials inspired his novel“The Satanic Verses” (1988).

The two final stories,“Oklahoma” and“The Old Man in the Piazza”, are set in the US and both are experimental, particularly Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma” is an unedited posthumous autofictional manuscript and a literary conversation between author M.A. and an acclaimed writer affectionately named Uncle K. What begins as an adventure in literary benefaction descends into uncertainty, deception and obsession.

M.A. is encouraged to complete the story of Kafka's Karl Rossmann in“Amerika” (1927), who never attained fulfilment since he failed to reach Oklahoma.

Instead, he presents manuscripts of uncertain authorship, including an 1819 tale of murals depicting anguish and despair in response to corruption, violence and ignorance sanctioned by controlling storytelling. These paintings also target old age, represented as death, rage, insanity, jealousy and hate.

The experimental story ponders obsession, incompleteness and falsehood as more of Rushdie's preoccupations emerge: The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, disappearance, global relocation.