Salman Rushdie is Back with a Book About his Attack
The Indian-born British-American writer puts down his recollections of the 2022 near-death incident in 'Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder'.
Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie has shown that you can’t keep a good man down. The Booker Prize winner for his 1981 novel Midnight’s Children demonstrates that the pen is mightier than the sword... or in the case of his last assault - the knife. The controversial author’s newest literary work - fittingly titled Knife - tells the gory story of the August 12, 2022 attack in Chautauqua, New York state. It was here that Rushdie was ironically about to deliver a talk on “Safety for Writers” when terror struck.
The infamous incident saw a 24-year-old misguided youth charge onto the stage and mercilessly stab his target. The ordeal lasted an excruciating 27 surreal seconds, during which the attacker pierced Rushdie 15 times. Indeed, the assaulter perforated the 75-year-old man’s eye, neck, hand and chest, before being restrained by several people in the audience. Timely transportation of the injured Rushdie and extraordinary work by the doctors helped him miraculously survive the near-fatal attack.
However, the traumatic encounter still came at a cost. The celebrated author lost his right eye, some movement in his left hand and uses a prosthetic in his mouth. In Knife, which was published by Random House on April 16, 2024, Rushdie also recounts his frozen reaction when the weapon-wielding youngster darted at him. The tenacious writer further recalls that the oncoming violence didn’t come to him as a surprise altogether. This despite the fact that Rushdie had enjoyed safety and freedom from 1998, after the diplomat lifting of a 9-year-old fatwa.
But after several years of breathing easy as an American citizen, Rushdie found himself up against the spectre of his incendiary 1988 novel Satanic Verses. It is clear that this 600-page magnum opus still infuriates many Muslims who deem it blasphemous and insulting. Shifting tone, Knife showers praise on Rushdie's assigned medicos, his loving wife (Rachel Eliza Griffiths) and their supportive friends - all of whom helped him recover. Plus, the book includes a fictional account of Victim meeting Perpetrator - this in an attempt to rationalise the situation and put it into perspective.
Without chest-thumping, Rushdie’s Knife exudes the triumph of the human spirit and portrays a writer refusing to lose heart. Plus, after the unpleasant 2 ½ year interruption, Rushdie is back to doing what he does best: writing his way into the hearts of his fans. After all, he has 16 mostly well-received novels to his credit. Rushdie is also back to delivering lectures and giving television interviews... showing that both a writer's printed and audible voices should never be silenced. And the indefatigable wordsmith still has the one visual organ to look his adversaries... in the eye.
