5 takeaways from Salman Rushdie's new memoir 'Knife' [View all]

[Coventina]

On August 12, 2022, famed author Salman Rushdie was stabbed. He was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, about to give a talk "about the importance of keeping writers safe from harm," Rushdie writes in his new memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.

Rushdie, the 76-year-old writer of The Satanic Verses, Midnight's Children, Victory City, and more, survived the attack. But not without some lasting scars, including being blind in one eye. Since the attack, he's done a handful of interviews here and there, but he's kept mostly to himself. In Knife, he details everything that's been going on in his life and in his head since the attack. He talks about the recovery process, the support he received from loved ones, and his feelings about his alleged attacker, Hadi Matar.

Matar is in custody at Chautauqua County Jail, being charged with second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault. The judge in his case actually postponed Matar's trial after Rushdie announced his memoir, in order to give Matar's lawyers an opportunity to see what's inside the book.

The book is out Tuesday. Here's what you can expect from it:

1. Rushdie has no interest in re-litigating The Satanic Verses

Rushdie only makes a few mentions of his 1988 book that led the supreme leader of Iran at the time to call for Rushdie's death. And, Rushdie notes in Knife, it wasn't just the Muslim world criticizing Rushdie for writing the book. He calls out other names, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the writers Roald Dahl and Germaine Greer. Besides that, Rushdie writes that he's said everything he's needed to say about Satanic Verses in his previous memoir, Joseph Anton." If anyone's looking for remorse, you can stop reading right here," he writes in Knife. "My novels can take care of themselves."

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/15/1244354113/salman-rushdie-memoir-knife

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Rushdie is one of my personal heroes.

Looking forward to reading the book!