LONDON: Controversial author Salman Rushdie will release his first novel in over seven years this coming September.

Random House said it has acquired rights to the book Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights which “blends history, mythology and a timeless love story to bring alive a world that has been plunged into an age of unreason”.

Rushdie said that unlike his other novels, his latest book is shorter and “will be something like 250 pages, which is like clearing my throat”.

Rushdie’s last novel was The Enchantress of Florence in 2008.

Rushdie’s most recent book, his memoir, Joseph Anton, was published in 2012. His eleven novels include Midnight’s Children (awarded the Booker Prize in 1981) and The Satanic Verses.

He went into hiding after his 1988 book, “The Satanic Verses,” drew a death edict from Iran’s religious leaders for its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

Sir Salman Rushdie is the author of many novels including Grimus, Shame, The Moor's Last Sigh , The Ground Beneath Her Feet , Fury and Shalimar the Clown. He has also published works of non-fiction including The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz and, as co-editor, The Vintage Book of Short Stories. He has received many awards for his writing, including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature.

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 1993 Midnight's Children was judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years.

In June 2007 he received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.