NEW YORK – In a published report, Salman Rushdie’s agent states that the author has lost sight in one eye and use of a hand as he recovers from an attack by a man who ran onto the stage at an August literary occasion in western New York.
Rushdie suffered three severe wounds to his neck as well as 15 more to his chest and torso in the attack, according to literary agent Andrew Wylie, who told the Spanish language publication El Pais in an article posted Saturday.
Rushdie, 75, spent several years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini released a fatwa in 1989 urging for his death following the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,”which was considered blaspemous according to some Muslims. Rushdie freely traveled for 2 decades.
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, was imprisoned after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the Aug. 12 attack on Rushdie while he was being presented at the Chautauqua Institution, a remotely located center 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo recognized for its summertime series of lectures.
Rushdie received treatment at a Pennsylvania hospital after the attack, where he was briefly placed on a ventilator to recover from what Wylie described as a “brutal attack” that severed nerves in one arm.
Wylie told the newspaper that he couldn’t say whether Rushdie was still in the hospital or where he was.
“He will live… “That’s what matters,” Wylie said. According to Wylie, the attack was similar to what Rushie and his agent thought was the “principal danger…. a random guy emerging out of nowhere and attacking.”
“You can’t guard against it because it’s completely unexpected and illogical,” he explained.
According to Wylie, it was similar to the murder of Beatles member John Lennon. Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980, just hours after the musician had signed an autograph for Chapman.
Matar told The New York Post in a jailhouse interview that he disliked Rushdie and admired Khomeini. Iran has denied any role in the attack.
