The Booker Prize winner and internationally acclaimed author of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses delivers a powerful account of the attempt on his life on 12 August 2022.
Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024
From internationally renowned writer and 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.
Speaking out for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie answers violence with art, and reminds us of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable. Knife is a gripping, intimate, and ultimately life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787334793
Number of pages: 224
Weight: 409 g
Dimensions: 242 x 160 x 22 mm
It is an absolutely stunning piece of writing: the ugliest thing turned into the most beautiful. No words of mine can do it justice. But I do have to say that it’s such a profound love story, too. - Nigella Lawson
Salman Rushdie’s memoir is horrific, upsetting – and a masterpiece… Knife is a tour-de-force, in which the great novelist takes his brutal near-murder and spins it into a majestic essay on art, pain and love…full of Rushdie’s wit, his wisdom, his stoicism, his optimism, his love of all culture from the so-called “high” to the so-called “low”. - Erica Wagner, Daily Telegraph
Knife is a rich, immersive, feisty account of [Rushdie's] journey through darkness back to the light. Part thriller, part love story, part celebration of literature, it’s an incandescent book full of hair-raising descriptions of hard-won survival and beautiful, philosophical passages about art, freedom and resilience…Rushdie has not just enlarged literature’s capacities, he has expanded the world’s imaginative possibilities — and he has paid a tremendous price for it. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude. - Johanna Thomas Corr, The Times
Rushdie’s triumph is not to be other: despite his terrible injuries and the threat he still lives under, he remains incorrigibly himself, as passionate as ever about art and free speech... At one point he quotes Martin Amis: “When you publish a book, you either get away with it, or you don’t.” He has more than got away with this one. It’s scary but heartwarming, a story of hatred defeated by love. - Blake Morrison, The Guardian
With both candour and rich detail, and reminding us again of his knack for storytelling, Knife celebrates art and love over violence, resilience over acquiescence - i, Books to Look Out for 2024*
Knife is a clarifying book. It reminds us of the threats the free world faces. It reminds us of the things worth fighting for. Rushdie’s friend Christopher Hitchens, in the wake of the initial fatwa, eloquently explained the stakes. The affair drew a line between “everything I hated versus everything I loved,” he wrote. “In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual and the defense of free expression.” His words apply to this book. - New York Times
Although the account of his violent ordeal is dramatic…the book is also a nuanced meditation on life, death, the importance of art, and the chilling daily reality of violence... the book fulfils his aim to take charge of what happened on that terrible day and “to answer violence with art" - Martin Chilton, The Independent
Rushdie has never written quite as directly as this, or emotionally. He emerges as stoic, droll, and astonishingly brave. “There are moments when these events are painful to set down,” he says. They’re painful to read, too, but necessary. As simple testimony, it makes for an incredibly compelling reading experience. The aim of the attack was ultimately to silence him. The aim failed. Salman Rushdie is a writer. The pen proved mightier than the sword after all. - Nick Duerden, i news
Brave and compelling… Knife isn’t only Rushdie’s finest book in years, it’s also his most enjoyable - Daily Mail, Book of the Week*
A surprisingly tender and redemptive story - Economist
Senseless violence is always a tragedy, yet the attempted assassination of Salman Rushdie in 2022 seemed especially disturbing. I believe this is because it appeared to be a direct attack on something many hold dear:... More
I’m so glad to have read this book. Were it not for loving the author’s other work, I would not have wanted to read about such dreadful events, however as well as shocking, it is tender and life affirming.
It's difficult to put into words just how amazing and vital this book is. I am in awe of the character and talent of a man capable of turning a horrific and almost-fatal attack into a transcendent and beautiful... More
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