NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER •
From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of
enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that
was ordered against him
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New
Yorker, Time, NPR, Town & Country, New York Post, Chicago
Public Library, Kirkus Reviews
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.
About the Author
Salman Rushdie is the author of fifteen novels—Luka
and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight’s Children (for
which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker); Shame; The
Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The
Moor’s Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar
the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Two Years,
Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House;
Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize); and Victory
City—and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has
also published five works of nonfiction—The Jaguar Smile; Imaginary
Homelands; Step Across This Line; Joseph Anton;
and Languages of Truth—and coedited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best
American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A
former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for
services to literature.
