Rushdie: 'I'm writing a book about my bombing'

Rushdie: 'I'm writing a book about my bombing'


British writer Salman Rushdie, 75, has started writing again and is now busy writing a "fairly short" book on the attack he survived on August 12, 2022 in Chautauqua, a small town in the state of New York, when he was stabbed a dozen times by a man in the audience at a conference by the Anglo-Indian writer.

Urgently transported to the emergency room, Rushdie suffered serious consequences: he lost the use of his right eye and the mobility of one hand. Salman Rushdie went to Windsor Castle today to be made a 'Servant of the Companions of Honour'. When asked by reporters when he plans to complete his next book, the writer replied: "Oh, I'll let you know."

Speaking after the investiture ceremony, during which he met Princess Royal Anne, Sir Salman Rushdie said it was a "great honour" to be rewarded for a "lifetime of work" and described Anne as "very generous".

Rushdie said at a festival in Washington over the weekend: "The eye is obviously a big loss, but other than that it's fully functional."

"I don't read as fast as I used to, but I'm writing a book, I think quite short, about what happened," added the author of "The Satanic Verses." When asked what advice he would give to a young writer, Rushdie replied: "I would say: do what you have to do and don't be afraid."

Rushdie made several appearances last week. On Monday, May 15, you received the Freedom To Publish Award for your commitment to freedom of publication. On this occasion, you spoke via videoconference and expressed your concern for freedom of expression around the world. "We live in an age, I believe, where freedom of expression and publication is threatened in Western countries to an extent I've never seen in my life," said the US-citizen novelist who has long lived in New York . Rushdie referred to the wave of book censorship in American public and school libraries, but also to the rewriting movement (cancel culture) of some works to eliminate language deemed problematic. On the evening of May 18, for the first time since the assault, the writer appeared in person at a public event, the annual Pen America organization gala.

“Terrorism shouldn't terrify us. Violence must not discourage us. The struggle continues,” she said in French, Spanish and English. It was another opportunity to defend freedom of expression, especially since Rushdie was president of Pen America between 2004 and 2006. Finally, on Saturday 20 May, the videoconference with the «Financial Times». On February 14, 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for blasphemy and apostasy, following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.

The writer was then placed under judicial protection, making him enter a new life of constant danger and threat. On 24 September 1998, the Iranian government officially announced that it would no longer implement the fatwa, explaining however that Islamic law made it impossible to reverse it.



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