A new book by Salman Rushdie is always news, but this time it’s front-page stuff. Knife, out this week, is a memoir about his experience of being stabbed multiple times on stage at an event in upstate New York on August 12, 2022. Here are a handful of things we’ve learnt from it.
Two nights before the event where he was stabbed — an event “about the importance of keeping writers safe from harm” — Rushdie had a nightmare, a full churning-the-sheets vision. He was in a Roman amphitheatre, rolling around on the ground “being attacked by a man with a spear”. So violently was his body thrashing that his wife had to shake him awake. He was so disturbed by the nightmare that
