Famend creator Salman Rushdie gave his first interview Sunday since his near-fatal stabbing in 2022, reflecting on the demise threats which have adopted him for many years in a brand new guide, “Knife.”
Rushdie, who grew to become a goal after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in opposition to him in 1989 over his portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed in “The Satanic Verses,” recalled the night in August 2022 when the newest try on his life almost succeeded.
He gave a presentation about writers who’re prone to violence due to their work in Chautauqua, New York.
“Within the nook of my proper eye — the very last thing my proper eye would ever see — I noticed the person in black operating towards me alongside the correct facet of the seating space,” he informed Anderson Cooper in a “60 Minutes” interview. “Black clothes, black face masks. He got here in arduous and low. A squat rocket.”
“I need to admit that I generally imagined my killer rising in some public discussion board and coming after me in precisely this fashion,” he continued. “So my first thought once I noticed this murderous form operating in direction of me was, ‘So it is you.’ Right here you might be.'”
After almost a decade of 24-hour safety in opposition to Iranian-backed assassins within the Nineties, Rushdie thought he was free from makes an attempt on his life.
“It felt like one thing got here from the distant previous. And I am making an attempt to tug myself again in time, if you’ll, again to that distant previous to kill me,” Rushdie mentioned. ‘And when he got here to me. He truly hit me actually arduous right here. And at first I assumed I had been punched.”
Rushdie was attacked fifteen instances in 27 seconds, together with his face, neck and chest stabbed and lower open. He misplaced the sight in his proper eye.
“I bear in mind considering I used to be most likely going to die,” he mentioned. “And it was fascinating as a result of it was very businesslike, it wasn’t like I used to be afraid of it or something. And sure, there was nothing. No heavenly choirs. No pearly white gates.”
“I imply, I am not a supernatural particular person, you realize? I consider demise is the top. Nothing occurred to alter my thoughts,” he continued. “I have not had any revelation, besides that there is no such thing as a revelation available.”
Rushdie barely survived the assault; he was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, and was not launched till over a month later.
His attacker was a 24-year-old who mentioned he was impressed to assault due to the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in ‘The Satanic Verses’, claiming Rushdie had ‘attacked Islam’.
“Knife,” his reflections on the expertise, is his twenty second guide, and never the guide he initially wished to jot down. He mentioned he was uninterested in being identified and being adopted by his demise threats.
“It was very tough for me, after ‘The Satanic Verses’ was printed, that the one factor anybody knew about me was this demise menace,” he mentioned. “However it grew to become clear to me that I could not write anything.”
“I’ve to deal with, you realize, utilizing the cliché, the elephant within the room, and the second I assumed that, one thing modified in my thoughts,” he continued. “After which it grew to become a guide that I actually wished to jot down.”
Now, 20 months later, Rushdie has absolutely recovered from the assault, minus one eye. He nonetheless lives in upstate New York.
“I do not really feel like I am very completely different, however I do really feel prefer it’s left a shadow,” he mentioned. “I feel that shadow is simply there. You understand, and a few days it is darkish and a few days it is not.
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