‘It Was a Colossal Attack’: Salman Rushdie’s First Missive Since Knife Assault

The celebrated author has spoken to ‘The New Yorker’ and tweeted an image of himself – his first communication with the public since the New York attack last year.

New Delhi: Salman Rushdie, the renowned award-winning novelist has put out the first picture of what he looks like now, after losing an eye in an attack at a public event in New York. 

Rushdie had tweeted, “The photo in @NewYorker is dramatic and powerful but this, more prosaically, is what I actually look like. 😊” However, the tweet seemed to have been deleted, prompting him to share the image again.

He has also made his first public comments about being stabbed last year, in what the magazine, The New Yorker, describes as “a near-fatal assassination attempt”. 

In an interview with the magazine, Rushdie told David Remnick he was “lucky… my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude”. Rushdie was attacked on a public stage ahead of a speech in August 2023 and spent six weeks in hospital. 

Several, including the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), said there could be no doubt that the assault was prompted by the fatwa issued by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.

“I’ve always tried very hard not to adopt the role of a victim,” Rushdie told Remnick.

“Then you’re just sitting there saying, Somebody stuck a knife in me! Poor me…Which I do sometimes think,” he added.

Rushdie also told Remnick that he cannot type very well, because of the lack of feeling in his fingertips as a result of the attack.

“I’m able to get up and walk around. When I say I’m fine, I mean, there are bits of my body that need constant check ups. It was a colossal attack,” he said.

He also spoke of mental scars due to the attack and having to rethink about security, having gone without it for over twenty years. “There is such a thing as PTSD, you know,” he said. “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.”

His new novel, Victory City, having the Vijayanagar empire as a backdrop, is set for release on February 7 and has already garnered praise in literary circles.