New York: British-American author Salman Rushdie’s new book ‘Knife’ releasing today tells the harrowing story of the near-fatal stabbing in 2022 that left him blind in one eye, news agency AFP reported.
The Indian-born author was speaking at a literary event in rural New York state when a knife-wielding assailant jumped on the stage and attacked him multiple times in the neck and abdomen.
He was to talk about protecting writers facing threat when the author himself was ironically exposed to the knife of the alleged attacker who later told New York Post that he had read two pages of ‘The Satanic Verses’ .
The man, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Lebanon, believed Rushdie had "attacked Islam," according to the report.
Rushdie has been facing threat since his 1988 novel ‘The Satanic Verses,’ after Iran’s supreme leader declared the book ‘blasphemous’.
Rushdie in the new book writes that he stood on the stage like a ‘pinata’, allowing the man to ‘ smash me’, news agency AFP reported citing The Guardian.
"It didn't feel dramatic, or particularly awful. It just felt probable... matter-of-fact,’ excerpts from the book said.
Denying any link with the attacker, Iran said only Rushdie should be blamed for the incident.
Ahead of the release of ‘Knife’, Rushdie told an interview with CBS that two days before the attack he had dreamed of being stabbed in an amphitheater.
However, Rushdie dismissed this premonition thinking ‘Don't be silly. It's a dream’.
Born in Mumbai, Rushdie moved to England and emerged as an acclaimed author with his second novel ‘Midnight’s Children’ in 1981; however, he received global attention seven years later with ‘The Satanic Verses’.
After the publication of the book, British police gave him protection and the author lived in hiding and changing places to avoid assailants.
In the late 1990s, Rushdie began to appear publicly after Iran reportedly said it would not support his assassination.