Rushdie's only children's book begins somewhere in Western Asia. Drawing upon the folklore of India and Muslim cultures, the story takes its father and son heroes on a quest from our contemporary world into a magnificently conceived "other" world. In the real world, Rashid Khalifa, the father, has lost his remarkable ability to tell stories, earning the moniker the Shah of Blah. Simultaneously, in the fantasy world, stories are disappearing from the Sea of Stories. Haroun, Rashid's son, searches for the mysterious cause of his father's loss and remedy to restore his talent. He encounters situations and characters of great originality, humor and imagination in a fast-moving tale full of word play and clever dialogue. 224 pages.