Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

Overdrive audiobook

English language

Published April 16, 2024 by Books on Tape.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-91070-2
OCLC Number:: 1429601135

(1 review)

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 …

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.

2 editions

Phil in SF reviewed Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

A bit of engaging therapy writing

4 stars

On August 12, 2022, a young radicalized Muslim man stabbed famed author Salman Rushdie some 15 times.

Rushdie explicitly disowns the idea of writing as therapy, but also says that he didn't feel like he could move on to write other work without first writing this book, a memoir of his experience. Much of it is a recounting of his journey to recover from his injuries at the hands of an amateur would-be assassin.

However, it very much veers into therapy during an extended chapter where Rushdie imagines conversations with his attacker in a jailhouse interrogation room over four days. That chapter is the most awkward of the book; it invents the workings of his assailant's mind from common tropes about radicalized Islamists, and then knocks those positions down handily.

The rest is engaging. Rushdie writes with humor and reveals enough of his emotions and frustrations that the experience is …

On August 12, 2022, a young radicalized Muslim man stabbed famed author Salman Rushdie some 15 times.

Rushdie explicitly disowns the idea of writing as therapy, but also says that he didn't feel like he could move on to write other work without first writing this book, a memoir of his experience. Much of it is a recounting of his journey to recover from his injuries at the hands of an amateur would-be assassin.

However, it very much veers into therapy during an extended chapter where Rushdie imagines conversations with his attacker in a jailhouse interrogation room over four days. That chapter is the most awkward of the book; it invents the workings of his assailant's mind from common tropes about radicalized Islamists, and then knocks those positions down handily.

The rest is engaging. Rushdie writes with humor and reveals enough of his emotions and frustrations that the experience is more than mere recitation. Rushdie is his own narrator in the audiobook, and has quite a talent for it. After this, I very much want to try again to read Midnight's Children, a book I've failed to progress beyond about 100 pages on multiple occasions.