Rushdie's first thought before a near-fatal attack

Acclaimed British-American author Salman Rushdie revealed in a detailed interview that his immediate thought was "So it's you. Here you are" when a masked assailant rushed the stage to stab him during a literary event at the Chautauqua Institution in New York on August 12, 2022. The writer, who had lived under a fatwa calling for his death for decades, noted that the moment felt like a delayed arrival of a fate he had long anticipated. The attack occurred as he was preparing to give a lecture on the importance of the United States providing asylum for writers in exile, a topic that ironically mirrored his own life's struggle with religious extremism. The brutal assault left the Booker Prize-winning author with life-altering injuries, including the loss of sight in his right eye and a severely damaged hand. Despite receiving approximately 15 stab wounds in a matter of seconds, Rushdie survived due to the swift intervention of audience members and event staff who tackled the attacker. The perpetrator, identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, was arrested at the scene and subsequently charged with second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault, though the motive was widely linked to the long-standing controversy surrounding Rushdie's 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. In his upcoming memoir titled "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder," Rushdie explores the psychological impact of the event and his road to recovery. He describes the encounter as a "procrastinated" event, suggesting that after years of living in relative safety in the United States, the sudden re-emergence of violence felt like a ghost coming back to haunt him. The book serves both as a personal healing process and a defiant statement against those who seek to silence free expression through physical intimidation and violence.