'Upsets Me Every Day': Blinded In One Eye, Salman Rushdie Recalls His Brush With Death

Recalling the dreadful incident, the Booker Prize-winning author stated that his left eye was left hanging down his face, and loosing it "upsets me every day." 

Indian-born British-American author Sir Salman Rushdie.

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Two years after the knife attack that nearly killed him, Sir Salman Rushdie has given his first major TV interview to BBC. Recalling the dreadful incident, the Booker Prize-winning author stated that his left eye was left hanging down his face, and loosing it "upsets me every day." 

Speaking with BBC's Alan Yentob, Rushdie said: "I remember thinking I was dying. Fortunately, I was wrong." Undeterred with the incident, Rushdie is coming up with his new book "Knife," a memoir which narrates the tale behind attack that maimed him in 2022. 

This memoir highlights the triumphant story of Rushdie and his brush with death — over three decades after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his murder over the novel “The Satanic Verses” — had diminished neither his spirit nor his determination to live life in the open. 

In an interview with BBC, Salman stated that he is using his new book as a way to fight back against what happenned with him two years ago. 

The attack occurred at an educational institution in New York state in August 2022, as he was about to deliver a lecture.

He recalled the assailant swiftly coming up the stairs and stabbing him 12 times, including in his neck and abdomen. "I couldn't have fought him," the author said. "I couldn't have run away from him."

Sir Salman recounted how he collapsed to the floor, surrounded by "a spectacular quantity of blood" following the attack.

After the incident, he was airlifted to a hospital, where he underwent a six-week recovery period.

The Indian-born British-American author, aged 76, is widely known as one of the most significant writers of contemporary literature. The assault made headlines worldwide.

'Upsets Me Every Day': Salman Rushdie 

The attack caused injury to Salman's liver and hands, and severed nerves in his right eye.

Describing his condition, he remarked: "My eye looked very distended, swollen. It was kind of hanging out of my face, sitting on my cheek, I've said like a soft-boiled egg. And blind."

Salman disclosed that the loss of one eye "upsets me" daily, necessitating extra caution when navigating stairs, crossing roads, or pouring water into a glass. However, he still considers himself to be lucky. He stated: "It meant I was actually still able to be myself."