Author Salman Rushdie was attacked at a cultural event in upstate New York. According to the police, he and his interlocutor were attacked on a stage in a venue in the town of Chautauqua in western New York state.
A reporter from the Associated Press news agency saw a man storm the stage and began stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. Police said the 75-year-old author was taken to hospital by helicopter with stab wounds to the neck. According to his agent, Rushdie underwent emergency surgery and was put on a ventilator. Nerve cords in his arm were severed and his liver was damaged, the manager said. Rushdie could lose an eye.
The attacker was overwhelmed by onlookers and arrested by a police officer who was present. The motive of the 24-year-old from Fairfield in the state of New Jersey, which is close to New York, is so far unclear.
The man who was supposed to interview Rushdie suffered minor head injuries, it said. The “New York Times” quotes a witness: “There was only one attacker”. And further: “He was dressed in black. He was wearing a loose black garment. He ran towards Rushdie at lightning speed.”
Helpers take care of the author lying on the ground
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Because of his 1988 work The Satanic Verses, Rushdie was once issued with a fatwa calling for his death. Some Muslims felt their religious sensibilities were offended by the work. At the time, Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued an Islamic legal opinion calling for the killing of Rushdie and everyone involved in distributing the book.
During his performance, Rushdie was attacked by a man who stormed the stage
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A Japanese translator was later actually killed. Rushdie had to go into hiding and was given police protection. Rushdie was born in the year of Indian independence in 1947 in the metropolis of Mumbai (then Bombay). He later studied history at King’s College, Cambridge. His breakthrough as an author was Midnight’s Children, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“Quixote” (2019)
Salman Rushdie’s “Quixotte” modernizes Cervantes’ classic and sets an aging traveler’s quest to the United States of today. He plays with facts and fiction, tells of everyday racism and the opioid crisis – and at the same time drifts off into the surreal. The novel was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize 2019.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“Midnight Children” (1981)
Rushdie’s first novel Grimus (1975) received little attention. But it was the second that made the British-Indian author an international literary star: “Midnight’s Children” is an allegory of India’s independence. The book won the Booker Prize and was made into a film by Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta more than 20 years after it was first published.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“The Satanic Verses” (1988)
“The Satanic Verses” fundamentally changed the writer’s life. Radical Muslims saw the novel as blasphemy. In 1989, the Iranian head of state Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced the author to death. Rushdie then lived underground for many years. The so-called Fatwa has not been officially repealed to this day.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“The Ground Beneath Their Feet” (1999)
Postcolonial culture and magical realism are Rushdie’s trademarks. Other ingredients of his works: countless references from world events, literature and pop. From this he formed such diverse works as the family saga “Des Mauren’s last sigh” (1995) or “The ground beneath her feet”, an alternative history of rock music. Rock band U2 later used the title in a song.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“Luka and the Fire of Life” (2010)
Rushdie has also written two children’s books. The fairy tale “Harun and the Sea of Stories” (1990) revolves around topics such as censorship and freedom of expression. “Luka and the Fire of Life” is a fantasy novel in which a boy has to save the life of his father – a storyteller.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“Joseph Anton” (2012)
Rushdie spent nine years underground. There he adopted the pseudonym Joseph Anton – in honor of his favorite writers Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov. During this time he divorced his second wife and entered into two other marriages, both of which broke up after a few years. Rushdie tells about this phase of his life in his autobiography “Joseph Anton”.
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An overview of Salman Rushdie’s work
“Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights” (2015)
“Two years, eight months and twenty-eight nights” – the number of days in the title of this book refers to Scheherazade’s tales of “One Thousand and One Nights”. Rushdie’s novel also offers at least as many stories. In the year the book was published, the Frankfurt Book Fair invited him to be the keynote speaker. Because of his participation, Iran called for a boycott of the event.
Author: Elizabeth Grenier (pr, ton)
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According to information from Rushdie’s publishers last year, the ayatollah’s fatwa no longer had any meaning for Rushdie. He is no longer restricted in his freedom of movement and no longer needs bodyguards. However, the years of hiding did not leave the writer untouched. He processed this time in the 2012 autobiography “Joseph Anton”, named after his alias.
