Salman Rushdie’s new novel Victory City is to be published tomorrow, nearly six months after a man repeatedly stabbed the writer on stage during a lecture in what many have condemned as an attack on rights. freedom of speech.
ushdie (75 years old) was blind in his right eye and severely injured in his left hand in the stabbing, which occurred more than three decades after Iran directed Muslims to kill Rushdie for what religious leaders deemed blasphemous in the book. his 1988 novel, The verses of Satan.
Rushdie’s upcoming 15th novel will be published by Penguin Random House and as a translation of a mythological epic originally written in Sanskrit about the Vijayanagara Empire that ruled much of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. Degree in the 14th century.
Since the attack in New York State, Rushdie has had difficulty writing and has frequent nightmares, he told the newspaper. New Yorkers magazine in an interview published this week.
He called the man accused of his murder plot, Hadi Matar, an idiot in the interview.
“All I’ve seen is his stupid interview in New York Post Office“, said Rushdie, who was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, and raised in a Muslim family.
Matar (25) said to parcel in a prison interview shortly after the stabbing that he claimed Rushdie had insulted Islam.
After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the then supreme leader of Iran, declared a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for Rushdie’s death, the writer spent years hiding under the protection of the police. close to England. But in recent years, he has lived more openly and is often seen in New York City.
Matar pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree assault. He remains jailed awaiting trial, which is not expected to begin for several months.
Rushdie spent six weeks recuperating in the hospital and still has regular medical visits.
He said he hoped the attack wouldn’t overshadow the novel.
“I always thought my books were more interesting than my life,” he told New Yorkers. “Unfortunately, the world doesn’t seem to agree.”
