New York: The 75-year-old author, Salman Rushdie, has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack he suffered while preparing to deliver a lecture in New York state two months ago, his agent has confirmed.
He received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel 'The Satanic Verses' was published, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he came on stage to give a talk on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on 12 August.
His agent Andrew Wylie said “[His wounds] were profound, but he’s [also] lost the sight of one eye. He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack.”
The agent declined to say whether Rushdie was still in hospital, saying the most important thing was that the writer is going to live. He said that the world was going through “a very troubled period” not least in the US. “I think nationalism is on the rise, a sort of fundamentalist right is on the rise. From Italy to Europe, Latin America and the US, where 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.”
Hadi Matar, 24, the man accused of stabbing Rushdie pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges when he appeared in court on August 18.
Two weeks before the attack, Rushdie had told an interviewer that he felt his life was “very normal again” and that fears of an attack were a thing of the past.”
