Salman Rushdie has lost his sight and one of his hands to severe nerve damage. His literary agent Andrew Wylie informed Spanish newspaper El País.
Wylie opened up about the extent of the 75-year-old author’s grievous injuries from an attempt on his life this past August in which he was stabbed 15 times in his neck and torso.
“[His wounds] were profound,” Wylie said. “It was a brutal attack.” Although Wylie couldn’t say whether or not Rushdie was still in the hospital, he did say, “He’s going to live…That’s the more important thing.
Rushdie has been under constant threat of violence since releasing “The Satanic Verses” in 1989, a book that prompted Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa against him with a $3 million bounty. Wylie said to El Pais that Rushdie and he had been having many discussions over the years about how Rushdie’s fatwa could be used against him.
“The principal danger that he faced so many years after the fatwa was imposed is from a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking [him],” Wylie said. “So, you can’t protect against that because it’s totally unexpected and illogical. It was like John Lennon[’s murder].”
Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed at Chatauqua in New York just before his lecture on artistic freedom. The attack was committed by a suspect aged 24, who pleaded not guilty in connection with the assault and second-degree attempted killing.
In the El País interview, Wylie spoke of the recent banning of “Maus,”The acclaimed graphic novel was written by Art Spiegelman, another client. The ban was his name. “ludicrous”And “shameful,”It is connected to the worldwide rise of right-wing nationalism.
“A sort of fundamentalist right is on the rise…half the country seems to think that Joe Biden stole the election from Donald Trump. And they admire this man who is not only completely incompetent and a liar and a crook, but just a farce. It’s ridiculous,”He said.
