Two nights before the attack, Salman Rushdie dreamed he was stabbed onstage

Salman Rushdie says writing <em>Knife</em> allowed him to change his relationship to the attack. "Instead of just being the person who got stabbed, I now see myself as the person who wrote a book about getting stabbed," he says.

Rushdie was onstage at a literary event in 2022 when he was attacked by a man in the audience: “Dying in the company of strangers — that was what was going through my mind.” His new book is Knife.

(Image credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths)

Rushdie was onstage at a literary event in 2022 when he was attacked by a man in the audience: “Dying in the company of strangers — that was what was going through my mind.” His new book is Knife.