#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
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.
#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
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.
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Find Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder Salman Rushdie in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder Salman Rushdie in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
9 books in catalog
Multilayered allegorical storytelling set against the backdrop of post-colonial history and cultural crossroads defines some of the most influential fiction of the late twentieth century, epitomized by the Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children. Written by Salman Rushdie, this landmark narrative uses surreal devices and historical framing to chronicle India's transition to independence through the life of a child born at the exact moment of the nation's birth.
Rushdie was born in 1947 in Bombay (now Mumbai) into a Kashmiri Muslim family shortly before Indian independence. At age fourteen, he moved to England to attend Rugby School and later studied history at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1968. He made his literary debut with the science fiction novel Grimus in 1975 before achieving widespread acclaim with his second novel, Midnight's Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was later selected on two separate occasions as the best novel in the prize's history.
Following the success of his 1983 novel Shame, Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, an ambitious work exploring immigration and faith that provoked severe political backlash, blasphemy allegations, and death threats, forcing him into living under police protection for several years. Over a career spanning five decades, he has published fourteen novels, non-fiction collections, and children's literature, including Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983 and knighted in 2007 for services to literature, he released the memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder in 2024 following a violent assault on stage in 2022.
Rushdie's writing style is primarily characterized by magical realism intertwined with historical fiction, marked by surreal characters, brooding humor, allegorical structures, and an energetic narrative tone. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent, drawing deeply upon its complex political landscapes, religious traditions, and post-colonial shifts.
A central theme running through his body of work is the exploration of cultural displacement and the complex connections, disruptions, and migrations between the Eastern and Western worlds. His characters frequently navigate dual identities, fractured memories, and global political forces, embodying the friction and synthesis that occur when disparate cultures collide.
9 books in catalog
Multilayered allegorical storytelling set against the backdrop of post-colonial history and cultural crossroads defines some of the most influential fiction of the late twentieth century, epitomized by the Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children. Written by Salman Rushdie, this landmark narrative uses surreal devices and historical framing to chronicle India's transition to independence through the life of a child born at the exact moment of the nation's birth.
Rushdie was born in 1947 in Bombay (now Mumbai) into a Kashmiri Muslim family shortly before Indian independence. At age fourteen, he moved to England to attend Rugby School and later studied history at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1968. He made his literary debut with the science fiction novel Grimus in 1975 before achieving widespread acclaim with his second novel, Midnight's Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was later selected on two separate occasions as the best novel in the prize's history.
Following the success of his 1983 novel Shame, Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, an ambitious work exploring immigration and faith that provoked severe political backlash, blasphemy allegations, and death threats, forcing him into living under police protection for several years. Over a career spanning five decades, he has published fourteen novels, non-fiction collections, and children's literature, including Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1983 and knighted in 2007 for services to literature, he released the memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder in 2024 following a violent assault on stage in 2022.
Rushdie's writing style is primarily characterized by magical realism intertwined with historical fiction, marked by surreal characters, brooding humor, allegorical structures, and an energetic narrative tone. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent, drawing deeply upon its complex political landscapes, religious traditions, and post-colonial shifts.
A central theme running through his body of work is the exploration of cultural displacement and the complex connections, disruptions, and migrations between the Eastern and Western worlds. His characters frequently navigate dual identities, fractured memories, and global political forces, embodying the friction and synthesis that occur when disparate cultures collide.
