Author Sir Salman Rushdie has described the moment before he was stabbed at a literary festival, saying he saw a “murderous shape advancing towards him” like a “stubby missile”.
The novelist was stabbed several times during the attack, which happened moments before he gave a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in new York status in August 2022.
The attack left the 76-year-old with life-changing injuries, including loss of vision in one eye and limited feeling in his hand.
The Indian-born British author has now written about the incident in his upcoming memoir, titled Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder – due to be published later this month.
Before the book was published, he read an excerpt to American journalist Anderson Cooper on the CBS program 60 Minutes, which airs on Sunday.
Reading your book, Mr Salman said, “In the corner of my right eye, the last thing my right eye would see.
“I saw the man in black running towards me from the right side of the living area. Black clothes, black mask.
“He was coming in strong and low, a squat missile.
“I confess that I have sometimes imagined my killer getting up in some public forum or other and coming after me in just that way.
“So my first thought when I saw this murderous shape running towards me was, ‘So it’s you. Here you are.'”
In 1989, Iran’s then leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for Sir Salman’s death following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses, which many Muslims consider blasphemy.
Sir Salman lived under police protection for years after the declaration of the fatwa and multimillion-dollar reward, and faced death threats and a failed assassination attempt in London in 1989.
The author said in an interview a few weeks before the attack that, after years in hiding, his life had returned to being relatively normal.
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Then, on August 12, 2022, he was about to give a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state when he was stabbed.
A man has been charged with attempted murder and assault – charges he has denied.
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In another teaser, uploaded to social media channel 60 Minutes, Sir Salman spoke about his survival of the attack.
“It feels like a miracle,” he said.
“And I certainly don’t feel like some hand came down from the heavens and protected me. But I think something happened that shouldn’t happen.”
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The book, published by Penguin Random House, is scheduled for release on April 16.
On April 21, Sir Salman will discuss his book and the attack as part of a series of events for the Southbank Centre’s Spring Literature and Spoken Word Season.
Sir Salman began his writing career in the early 1970s and his 1983 novel Midnight’s Children, about the birth of India, won the Booker Prize in 1981.
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