Salman Rushdie's Midnight's children

"In the moments of upheaval that surround the stroke of midnight on August 14-15, 1947, the day India proclaimed its independence from Great Britain, 1,001 children are born - each of whom is gifted with supernatural powers. Midnight's Children focuses on the fates of two of them - the illegitimate son of a poor Hindu woman and the male heir of a wealthy Muslim family - who become inextricably linked when a midwife switches the boys at birth.".

"An allegory of modern India, Midnight's Children is a family saga set against the volatile events of the thirty years following the country's independence - the partitioning of India and Pakistan, the rule of Indira Gandhi, the onset of violence and war, and the imposition of martial law. It is a magical and haunting tale, of fragmentation and of the struggle for identity and belonging that links personal life with national history."--BOOK JACKET.