NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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 A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York
Times Book Review The New Yorker Time NPR Town & Country New York Post Chicago Public
Library Kirkus Reviews 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.
