Author Sir Salman Rushdie is writing again after being the victim of a 2022 attack that saw him spend six weeks in hospital and cost him the sight in one of his eyes.
The novelist was the victim of a stabbing in August of last year when an assailant repeatedly stabbed him as he was about to make a speech at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. A 24-year-old from New Jersey was arrested at the scene and has since been charged with attempted murder.
Sir Salman told reporters about his recovery from the attack and his continued love for the act of writing at a recent ceremony in Windsor, where he was amongst those being made a Companion of Honour.
The Booker-winning author said that it “took a while” for him to return to writing, but he has now started to work again. In response to questions about when he will finish his next book, Sir Salman added: “I’ll let you know.”
He also spoke of his desire to keep writing at a Washington book festival recently. There, he said: “I am not reading as fast as I used to but . . . I am writing what I think will be a fairly short book about what happened.”
This is a clear improvement from his response to a similar question posed in an interview with The New Yorker in February. There, he spoke apprehensively about his future in writing.
He said: “There is such a thing as PTSD, you know. I’ve found it very, very difficult to write. I sit down to write, and nothing happens. I write, but it’s a combination of blankness and junk, stuff that I write and that I delete the next day. I’m not out of that forest yet, really.”
The writer has previously faced controversy and death threats relating to his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. Many were furious with his work, arguing that the book insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Then-Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, even called for the assassination of Sir Salman.
Sir Salman’s most recent book was Victory City. It was published in 2022 and it was Rushdie’s 21st novel.
