'I remember thinking, this is the end': Salman Rushdie reveals how knifeman ... trends now
Salman Rushdie has revealed he thought 'this is the end' as he lay in a 'lake' of his own blood after being viciously stabbed multiple times at a book fair two years ago.
The Indian-born British author, who was left fighting for his life after being attacked at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state, says it was 'good fortune' that means he survived his grievous injuries.
The 76-year-old lost his right eye following the attack, while also being stabbed in the face, neck, chest, abdomen, thigh and hand in the assassination attempt in front of horrified audience members on August 12, 2022.
The novelist said frenzied knifing, which lasted around 30 seconds, came 'out of the blue' despite having been the subject of death threats since the 1980s over his book The Satanic Verses.
He previously told how when he saw the man who attacked him approaching him on stage he initially thought 'so it's you, here you are' and recalled how memories of the attack 'upset me every day'.
Salman Rushdie says he thought 'this is the end' after he was stabbed on stage at a book fair in New York two years ago. Pictured: Mr Rushdie at the Vaclav Havel Center in New York in November, 2023
It took 27 seconds for festival goers and festival staff to drag Rushdie's attacker off him during the incident. Pictured: Security staff and first aiders crowd round Mr Rushdie after the assault
He told Sky News programme Speaking to The World with Yalda Hakin that the attack was an 'unpleasant experience' and he 'quite clearly' thought he was dying.
Mr Rushdie said he remembered 'lying on the floor in a substantial lake of blood, and I clearly remember thinking this was about to be the end', but 'fortunately, I was wrong'.
He said: 'Fortunately he missed a lot of places that would have been immediately fatal. Although there was a big cut across my neck, he didn't get the artery.
'Although there were three injuries to my torso, he didn't reach the heart - in that sense, it was a piece of good fortune in the middle of an unpleasant experience.'
He was speaking after the publication of his 22nd book, the memoir Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder, in which he talks about the attack and the impact it has had on him.
He said he felt releasing a book about his experience was his way of 'regaining control the narrative' about his life.
It was the release of his fourth book, The Satanic Verses, drew heavy criticism for the suggested contradiction of the prophet Mohammed's infallibility and was banned in a number of countries.
Then in 1989, the then supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared a $3million fatwa contract on his life for the 'blasphemy' contained in the book, which sent the writer into hiding for 10 years.
Before the 2022 knife attack, Mr Rushdie's police minders alerted him to half a dozen serious assassination attempts from state-sponsored terrorists before Iran called off its attempts in 1998.
The author spent eight hours in surgery, 18 days in hospital, and three weeks in rehabilitation after being airlifted to hospital from New York's Chautauqua Amphitheater
Sir Salman's wife, the poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths (pictured together), chartered a private plane to reach him after the attack
The Indian-born author had a $3million fatwa placed on his head and endured at least six state-sponsored assassination attempts after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988
But the fatwa remains in place and a lone wolf nearly claimed the prize after Mr Rushdie accepted an invitation to speak at the Chautauqua Amphitheater in August 2022.
Mr Rushdie told Sky News he had done many public speaking events before this particular booking and there had 'never been a hint of trouble before', with the attack itself coming 'out of the blue'.
Rushdie's account of the attack has been published by Penguin Random House
His alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, 26, was dragged off the stage by stewards and has been held without bail at the Chautauqua County Jail as he awaits trial.
His trial was postponed at the start of this year after
