Rushdie Reveals His Story After the Attack: His First Television Interview
Renowned author Salman Rushdie opens up about the life-altering attack he endured during a conference on freedom of expression in his first-ever television interview. The interview, conducted by Anderson Cooper for the program Sixty Minutes, will air on Sunday. Rushdie’s new memoir, Knife, is set to be released soon, with the Italian version titled Coltello and published by Mondadori.
The Anglo-Indian writer, famously targeted by a fatwa issued by Iranian Ayatollahs following the release of his novel The Satanic Verses, suffered a brutal attack that left him severely injured on August 12, 2022, at Chautauqua, an artist community in New York state. Rushdie’s assailant, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody.
After the attack, Rushdie’s life hung in the balance as he was briefly intubated and lost vision in his right eye. “The surgeon who saved my life said I was lucky to be alive after being so unlucky. My attacker had no idea how to kill a man with a knife,” Rushdie revealed to CBS.
The trial, initially scheduled for January, was postponed as the defense claimed they needed more time to study Rushdie’s memoir, titled Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, which is slated for release on April 16 by Penguin-Random House. “Writing this book was a necessity for me; a way to appropriate the narrative of what happened and respond to violence with art,” Rushdie commented when the publishing deal was announced.
This attack came after years of living under the constant threat of the fatwa, which included a $2.5 million bounty on his head since it was issued in 1989. Rushdie’s previous memoir, Joseph Anton, published in 2012 under a pseudonym he adopted during that period of fear as a tribute to writers Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov, delves into the experience of living in hiding for nearly a decade. The fatwa was finally lifted in 1998, allowing Rushdie to reintegrate into the New York literary community where he became an outspoken advocate for freedom of expression.
Initially, Rushdie was reluctant to write about the attack he had endured, but he eventually changed his mind and conceived of Knife as a companion to Joseph Anton, albeit from a different perspective. “When someone stabs you with a knife, it becomes a first-person story,” he explained.
Salman Rushdie’s interview promises to provide an intimate and insightful glimpse into his life before and after the attack, shedding light on the struggles and triumphs he has faced throughout his extraordinary journey. Don’t miss out on this exclusive interview, airing this Sunday on Sixty Minutes.