British-American author Salman Rushdie’s new memoir Knife has hit the stores on Tuesday where he recounts the fatal stabbing episode at a public event in 2022 that left him blind in one eye. The author’s healing journey is also mentioned in the memoir.
The Indian-born author, based in New York, has been facing death threats since his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses was declared blasphemous by Iran’s supreme leader, making Rushdie a global symbol of free speech.
But after years of silence, a knife-wielding assailant jumped on stage at an arts gathering in rural New York state and stabbed Rushdie multiple times in the neck and abdomen. He ultimately lost his right eye.
In the book, Rushdie laments about him taking no action to protect himself from the assailant— reports suggest.
Tehran denied any link with the attacker— but said only Rushdie, now 76 years old, was to blame for the incident. The suspect, then 24, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
In an interview, the alleged attacker, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Lebanon, said he had only read two pages of The Satanic Verses but believed Rushdie had “attacked Islam”.
“I marvel from a distance at Salman’s courage and resilience. He has held the narrative close to him until now,” said Suzanne Nossel, chief executive of free speech advocacy group PEN America.
In an interview, “60 Minutes” ahead of the release of Knife, Rushdie recounted he had dreamt two days before the attack of being stabbed in an amphitheater and, thus, considered not to attend the event.
And then dismissed it as a mere dream.
In the book, Rushdie, reportedly, admits that he has experienced nightmares in the wake of the attack.
Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai but moved to England as a boy, hogged the limelight with his second novel Midnight’s Children (1981), which won Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.
However, The Satanic Verses brought him far greater, mostly unwelcome, attention.
The atheist author’s parents were non-practising Muslims, they had to go underground for the novel. Rushdie was granted police protection in Britain, following the death threats to not just him but also the book’s translators and publishers.
Rushdie only began to emerge from his life on the run in the late 1990s
After Iran declared that it would not support his assassination, Rushdie became an attendee of normal life.
The author has been married five times and has two children.
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