1. Essays. Out of Kansas --
The best of young British novelists --
Arthur Miller at eighty --
In defense of the novel, yet again --
Notes on writing and the nation --
Adapting Midnight's children --
Rock music, a sleeve note --
A commencement address --
"Imagine there's no heaven" --
"Damme, this is the Oriental scene for you!" --
India's fiftieth anniversary --
A dream of glorious return --
2. Messages from the plague years. 3. Columns. December 1998: Three leaders --
January 1999: The millennium --
February 1999: Ten years of the Fatwa --
March 1999: Globalization --
April 1999: Rock music --
May 1999: Moron of the year --
July 1999: Northern Ireland --
September 1999: Darwin in Kansas --
October 1999: Edward Said --
November 1999: Pakistan --
December 1999: Islam and the west --
January 2000: Terror versus security --
February 2000: Jorg Haider --
March 2000: Amadou Diallo --
April 2000: Elian Gonzalez --
May 2000: J.M. Coetzee --
August 2000: Two crashes --
September 2000: Senator Lieberman --
October 2000: The Human Rights Act --
November 2000: Going to electoral college --
December 2000: A grand coalition? --
January 2001: How the Grinch stole America --
February 2001: Sleaze is back --
March 2001: Crouching striker, hidden danger --
April 2001: It wasn't me --
May 2001: Abortion in India --
July 2001: The Release of the Bulger killers --
August 2001: Arundhati Roy --
September 2001: Telluride --
October 2001: The attacks on America --
November 2001: Not about Islam? --
February 2002: Anti-Americanism --
March 2002: God in Gujarat --
4. Step across this line.