Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Named one of the Best Books of the Year by The New Yorker • The Globe and Mail • The Guardian • Winnipeg Free Press • NPR • Slate • Kirkus Reviews • TIME • From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him.

On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.

SALMAN RUSHDIE is the author of fifteen novels—Luka and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker); Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor’s Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House;  Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize); and Victory City—and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published five works of nonfiction—The Jaguar Smile; Imaginary Homelands; Step Across This Line; Joseph Anton; and Languages of Truth—and coedited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.

ISBN: 9781039009677
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: April 08, 2025

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE • ONE OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL'S BEST BOOKS OF 2024 • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024 • ONE OF NPR'S 2024 BOOKS WE LOVE • ONE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2024 • A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST MEMOIRS OF 2024 • ONE OF THE TIMES BEST LITERARY NON-FICTION BOOKS OF 2024

“Candid, plain-spoken, and gripping. . . . Humane and often witty. . . . Humour bubbles up organically from pain. . . . Knife is a clarifying book. . . . It reminds us of the things worth fighting for. . . . I put this book down only once or twice, to wipe off the sweat.” —New York Times Book Review

“This year’s best books mattered because they offered refuge from the wheels grinding in our heads. They made us feel less alone and reminded us that we are still sane.... Knife...is harrowing from front to back. But for Rushdie, humor bubbled up organically from pain— his book is packed with wit.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times, "Our Book Critics on Their Year in Reading"

“Knife isn’t so much about pondering imminent death than it is an affirmation—an insistence—on returning to life.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Rushdie’s triumph is not to be other: despite his terrible injuries and the threat he still lives under, he remains incorrigibly himself, as passionate as ever about art and free speech.” —The Guardian