Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after being stabbed multiple times at a literary event in upstate New York two months ago, his son said. agent.
The 75-year-old author, whose 1988 novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ forced him into hiding amid calls for his death, was stabbed in the neck and chest as he took the stage to deliver a speech at the Chautauqua Institution on August 12. .
But the extent of his injuries were only revealed on Saturday, when his agent Andrew Wylie gave an update on his condition in an interview with Spanish newspaper El País.
“[His wounds] were deep, but it is [also] lost sight in one eye,” Wylie said. “He had three serious neck injuries. A hand is incapacitated because the nerves in its arm have been severed. And he has about 15 other chest and torso injuries. So it was a brutal attack.
The agent declined to say whether Rushdie was still being treated in hospital, but said the important thing was that the world-renowned author will survive.
Wylie added that the possibility of an attack was something on their minds.
“I think the attack was probably something that Salman and I have discussed in the past, which is that the main danger he faced so many years after the imposition of the fatwa was from a random person coming out. out of nowhere and attacking [him]” Wylie said.
Rushdie was in upstate New York giving a talk when the attack happened.
Rushdie was stabbed in the neck in upstate New York in August.
Law enforcement detains Hadi Matar outside the facility in upstate New York following the attack.
The author was airlifted after the attack.
“So you can’t protect yourself against that because it’s totally unexpected and illogical. It was like the murder of John Lennon,” he added.
Hadi Matar, 24, a New Jersey resident who was arrested for stabbing Rushdie, pleaded not guilty to attempted second degree murder and assault in August.
New York State Police say Rushdie was about to start his scheduled lecture when Matar charged into the scene with a knife in his hand, stabbing the British author in the neck and chest.
Rushdie spent nearly a decade in hiding after “The Satanic Verses” was published, angering some who called the novel blasphemous. A religious edict known as a fatwa, calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie, was issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s leader, a year after the book was published.
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