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Rushdie's new memoir Knife recounts 2022 attack
Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, will be published by Vintage in April 2024, recounting his experience of being stabbed on stage in New York last year, which left him without sight in one eye.
The publisher described it as “a gripping account of surviving an attempt on his life 30 years after the fatwa was ordered against him”. All rights were acquired from Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency. Knife will be published simultaneously in more than 15 territories.
Rushdie suffered serious injuries after being stabbed on stage at a literary event in New York in August 2022. He was stabbed in the torso and neck and spent six weeks in hospital and subsequently lost the use of one hand and vision in one eye.
Vintage said: “Speaking out for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of 12th August 2022, Knife is a powerful, deeply personal and uplifting meditation on life, loss, love, the power of art, finding the strength to keep going – and to stand up again.”
The author said: “This was a necessary book for me to write: a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art.”
Nihar Malaviya, Penguin Random House’s recently announced c.e.o., said: “Knife is a searing book, and a reminder of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable. We are honoured to publish it, and amazed at Salman’s determination to tell his story, and to return to the work he loves.”
Rushdie had previously hinted about writing a book about the attack, including in a pre-recorded Zoom appearance at this Hay Festival in June, where he received the Medal for Prose. He told audiences: “I’m trying to write a book about the attack on me – what happened and what it means, not just about the attack, but around it.”
He first discussed a potential sequel to his memoir, Joseph Anton (Vintage, 2012), in his first interview after the attack in February in a conversation with New Yorker.
It was recently announced that the 76-year-old will be a guest at the Literature Gala at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Saturday 21st October where he will be awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade this year.
Rushdie’s latest novel, Victory City (Vintage), was published globally in February. Overall his work has been translated into over 40 languages. He won the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight’s Children (Vintage). He has sold 780,132 copies for £6.5m since Nielsen BookScan records began in 1998.
