Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie The octopus is the closest

The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien

pushed on through ice-strewn waters to Greenland and then found themselves isolated in a perfect storm 400 miles from Iceland

and I put him on trial

Esther's world shines through: the wide-eyed country girls

humorous missive to his friend Alfred Perlès describing the trip and his return journey on a Dutch steamer

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie The octopus is the closestLos Angeles, 1991. Maximilian Ophuls, one of the makers of the modern world, is knifed to death in broad daylight 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