Knife by Salman Rushdie

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Knife by Salman Rushdie: 2. Personal meditations on enduring a violent attack

2. Personal meditations on enduring a violent attack

BBC Radio 4 - Knife by Salman Rushdie, 2. Personal meditations on enduring a violent attack

The acclaimed author's deeply personal meditations on enduring a violent attack.

The renowned author's meditations on enduring and surviving a brutal attempt on his life, some 30 years after the fatwa that was ordered against him. Art Malik is the reader.

Salman Rushdie's deeply personal meditations on enduring and surviving a brutal attempt on his life more than thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him. Art Malik is the reader.

On the morning of 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black – black clothes, black mask – rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey towards physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to stand up again.

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The acclaimed author's deeply personal account of enduring a violent attempt on this life.

Book of the Week. The internationally renowned author Salman Rushdie's deeply personal account of enduring and surviving a brutal attempt on this life, in August 2022.

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Knife by Salman Rushdie

2. Personal meditations on enduring a violent attack

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