East, West is a short story collection by Indian British author Salman Rushdie. Originally published by Jonathan Cape in 1994, East, West is a collection of nine distinct narratives set across cultural and geographical divides. The characters in East, West are either wrestling with their harrowing circumstances on the Indian subcontinent, clinging to superstition to escape reality, or losing themselves in European capitalism’s flimsy promises of wealth and happiness. No matter where they live or what they are struggling with, Rushdie’s characters are all in search of reconciliation and understanding. Told from a range of points of view, the collected short stories explore themes including The Illusions Provided by False Stories and Promises, the Search for Home and Belonging, and Navigating Cross-Cultural Identity.

Salman Rushdie is an internationally renowned author of fiction and nonfiction. He is best known for his 1988 publication The Satanic Verses. His awards and accolades include the 1981 Booker Prize, the 2008 James Joyce Award, the PEN Pinter Prize, and the 2025 Authors Guild Foundation Champion of Writers Award.

This guide refers to the 1995 Vintage International paperback edition of the collection.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include sexual content, cursing, and depictions of racism, graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, chronic illness, mental illness, death by suicide, and death.

Plot Summaries

East, West is a collection of nine short stories organized into three titled sections: Part 1, “East”; Part 2, “West”; and Part 3, “East, West.” Part 1, “East,” presents three short stories set on the Indian subcontinent and embracing notions of hardship and entrapment. Part 2, “West,” presents three short stories set in Europe, which hyperbolize the myths of British culture. Part 3, “East, West,” presents three short stories which explore the intersection of these geographical and cultural divides. The following summaries are organized according to the collection’s structure.

In “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies,” a third-person narrator tells the story of Miss Rehana and Muhammad Ali. Miss Rehana travels to the British Consulate to secure a British passport. Muhammad Ali is taken by her beauty, and promises to procure her the necessary documentation for a fee. Miss Rehana sees through Muhammad Ali’s deception and confesses that she does not want to go to Britain to fulfill the terms of her arranged engagement; she is glad when her application is denied.

In “The Free Radio,” the first-person narrator remarks on the life and fate of a village boy named Ramani. During the State of Emergency in 1975 (a 21-month period in which democracy in India was suspended), Ramani started dating the thief’s widow, a woman the narrator believed would ruin Ramani’s chances of happiness and stability. Ramani was so determined to please the woman (who did not want any more children), he agreed to have a vasectomy, volunteering himself for sterilization in one of the government caravans in exchange for a free transistor radio. He never received the radio, but did walk around town holding an imaginary radio to his ear. Some weeks later, Ramani left town and started writing to the narrator. His letters told fantastic stories about his new life in Bombay.

In “The Prophet’s Hair,” the third-person narrator tells the story of a money lender named Hashim, his unnamed wife, and his two children, Atta and Huma. One day, the practical Hashim finds a vial containing the Prophet Muhammad’s hair in the lake outside his home. He knows the relic was recently stolen from the mosque, but decides to keep it instead of returning it. He is soon driven to a state of derangement and begins tormenting his family. Determined to stop their father, the children arrange for a professional burglar to break into their home and steal the hair. The plan goes awry and Atta ends up dying of fright when he sees the hired thief. When his mother sees his dead body, she screams, waking Hashim, who races into the hall with a sword and accidentally stabs Huma to death. Horrified by what he has done, he then turns the sword on himself, dying by suicide.

In “Yorick,” a first-person narrator recounts a story he recently discovered on an ancient piece of parchment. It is a new version of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1609). In this version, Yorick is alive. He is the jester of Hamlet’s father, Horwendillus. Hamlet loves Yorick and treats him like a parental figure. Then one night, Hamlet sneaks out of bed and finds his parents making love. Convinced his father is trying to kill his mother, he interrupts. A furious Horwendillus beats Hamlet. Afterward, Hamlet concocts a poison. Then he tells Yorick that his wife Ophelia has been having an affair with Horwendillus. Yorick poisons and kills the king and spurns Ophelia. These events ultimately lead to the events in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

In “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers,” a first-person plural narrator attends an auction where the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz are being sold. As the group wanders around the auction, studying the items up for bid, a first-person singular narrator emerges. He reveals that he plans to buy the ruby slippers to win back his unrequited love, Gale. When he starts bidding on the slippers, however, he quickly realizes he will never be able to afford them. He abruptly drops out of the bidding, leaves the auction, and returns home. In the morning, he feels relieved of his attachment to Gale.

In “Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship,” Christopher Columbus visits Queen Isabella and begs her for her patronage. To win her economic support, he tries to sexually woo her. An incensed Queen Isabella starts toying with Columbus, stringing him along for countless weeks. Finally, she has a dream one night which reveals that the only way for her to possess the known and unknown worlds is via Columbus. She vows to back his overseas ventures.

In “The Harmony of the Spheres,” the first-person narrator Khan’s best friend, Eliot Crane, dies by suicide. In the aftermath of his death, Eliot’s wife, Lucy Evans, contacts Khan. The news causes Khan to reflect on Eliot’s life and their friendship. Eliot was a person with paranoid schizophrenia. Although Khan knew his friend had a mental illness, he often got caught up in Eliot’s fantasies, paranoid delusions, and conspiracy theories. When he visits Lucy in the narrative present, she tasks him with going through Eliot’s papers. Eliot’s writings reveal just how sick Eliot was. Khan can’t help feeling implicated.

In “Chekov and Zulu,” college friends Chekov and Zulu both work for the India Secret Service. They are both Star Trek fans and like to use code names from the series for their own amusement. After Indira Gandhi’s murder, the two are tasked with locating Sikh extremists. The assignment ultimately pulls the friends apart. Chekov stops talking to Zulu after he threatens to stop working for the Secret Service.

In “The Courter,” the first-person narrator receives an unexpected letter from his childhood housekeeper and nanny, Certainly-Mary. Her note reminds the narrator of her role in his upbringing, and he sets out to tell her story. As he reminisces about his childhood past, the narrator remarks on Certainly-Mary’s unlikely courtship with the hall porter Mixed-Up. The narrator particularly remembers their chess games. The narrator recalls with sadness the day she decided to leave England to return to India, tired of the racism she faced in the UK. The narrator in turn reflects on his own youthful decision to get his British citizenship. In some ways it set him free, but he still feels incapable of choosing between his Indian and British identities.