The book, while at its core detailing the love of two men, Ormus Cama and Umeed "Rai" Merchant (the narrator of the story), for the same woman, Vina Apsara, provides a background and alternate history to the entire 1950s–1990s period of the growth of rock music.

Defined by Toni Morrison as "a global novel", the book sets itself in the wide frame of Western and post-colonial culture, through the multilingualism of its characters, the mixture of East and West and the great number of references that span from Greek mythology, European philosophy and contemporaries such as Milan Kundera and the stars of rock'n roll.

Rushdie re-introduces characters from his previous novels, including Homi Catrack and William Methwold from Midnight's Children (1981), S.S. Sisodia from The Satanic Verses (1988), and Aurora Zogoiby from The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), as well as settings such as Warden Road and Everest Villas.

Composed by Victoria Borisova-Ollas and featuring a film directed by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Internal Affairs), the tale of two star-crossed lovers was performed by the Hallé orchestra, conducted by its music director Mark Elder and Alan Rickman as the narrator, with Tehmina Sunny in the role of Vina.

[6][7][8][9] Globally, Complete Review saying on the consensus "Everyone grants that Rushdie displays some linguistic flair, pretty much everyone agrees the characters and characterization is stunningly flat, otherwise opinion is sharply divided.