Salman Rushdie, Booker-prize winning author and free speech advocate, is writing a memoir about the violent attempt on his life at a New York lecture in August 2022, three decades after a fatwa was ordered against him.
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder will be released by Penguin Random House on April 16, 2024, the publisher announced.
The author will share “for the first time, and in unforgettable detail” his perspective on the assault in a “powerful, deeply personal, and ultimately uplifting meditation on life, loss, love, the power of art, finding the strength to keep going—and to stand up again,” according to Penguin Random House.
Rushdie, who had previously been reluctant to write about the attack, now says that the book was a “necessary” one for him to write: “a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art.”
“Knife is a searing book, and a reminder of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable,” Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement. “We are honored to publish it, and amazed at Salman’s determination to tell his story, and to return to the work he loves.”
Random House will publish Knife in print and digital formats in more than 15 territories, including the United States. Penguin Random House Audio will release an audiobook edition.
Amy Reiter is a freelance writer.
