Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

eBook, 224 pages

English language

Published April 16, 2024 by Random House.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-73026-3
OCLC Number:: 1429602168
Goodreads:: 199345551

On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, 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 toward 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, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward 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 at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is …

On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, 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 toward 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, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward 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 at the peak of his powers, 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.

4 editions

4thace@books.theunseen.city reviewed Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Reflections on surviving a devastating assault

4 stars

This is mostly a straightforward account of what it is like to be the subject of an attempted murder in public, to recover from life-threatening wounds, to adjust to physical and psychological damage over long months afterwards, and to learn what the most important values were in life. It includes one section of imaginary conversation between the author and his assailant which shed light on the frame of mind of the former and seems to have served a therapeutic function. To me, the tone was not one of conceit or celebration of his own superiority, but that of a man truly shaken to the core, which I found sympathetic. He finds himself forced to think back to the fatwa issued against his life over thirty years ago which took away his ability to go out in public with ease without fear of bloody violence. He was pleased to find that …

This is mostly a straightforward account of what it is like to be the subject of an attempted murder in public, to recover from life-threatening wounds, to adjust to physical and psychological damage over long months afterwards, and to learn what the most important values were in life. It includes one section of imaginary conversation between the author and his assailant which shed light on the frame of mind of the former and seems to have served a therapeutic function. To me, the tone was not one of conceit or celebration of his own superiority, but that of a man truly shaken to the core, which I found sympathetic. He finds himself forced to think back to the fatwa issued against his life over thirty years ago which took away his ability to go out in public with ease without fear of bloody violence. He was pleased to find that many people were on his side hoping for him to pull through and return to his art someday. He tells us that he had to write about this painful episode because for a while those were the only words he had to give, that the stories would not come for him until this all came out.