from Editorial Foreigners Online
The author of The Satanic Verses was attacked in upstate New York last August 12
Writer Salman Rushdie, who was attacked two months ago while delivering a speech in Chautauqua, New York, lost sight in one eye and one hand. It was his agent Andrew Wylie who revealed it in an interview with El Pais on the sidelines of the Frankfurt International Book Fair: “His neck wounds were very deep and he also lost sight in one eye – he explained – . One hand is non-functional due to severe nerves in the arm and 15 other wounds to the chest and torso. It was a brutal attack. ‘
The 75-year-old writer has been in hiding and under guard since 1989, when Ayatollah Khomeini launched a fatwa against him after the publication of The Satanic Verses. But apparently, over the years, Rushdie had let his guard down. Two weeks before the attack, he said he now felt that “his life is back to normal and that the fear is a thing of the past.” “I have to live my life,” he repeated several times. And so he was attacked on August 12 as he prepared to speak about artistic freedom. Six days later, the assassin, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, pleaded not guilty, claiming he tried to kill the writer for attacking Islam.
Wylie declined to say if the writer is still in the hospital just to make sure he’s okay. “The main danger has always been the attack of a loner – he explained – you cannot protect yourself from something completely illogical and unexpected.”
October 23, 2022 (Change October 23, 2022 | 19:37)
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