Sir Salman Rushdie reveals in new interview ‘no explanation’ for how he survived brutal stabbing in New York in 2022

Sir Salman Rushdie says he has ‘no explanation’ for how he survived a brutal stabbing and writes in his new book that it felt like ‘a miracle’.

The Booker Prize-winning author, who was stabbed in New York in 2022, has given his first TV interview about the attack, describing how his attacker came in ‘hard and low – a squat missile’.

It led to him spending six weeks in hospital and losing his right eye. Doctors said he was lucky to escape with his life.

But the Indian-born novelist, a fierce critic of religion, described how his dealings with death left him struggling with how and why he had survived.

“This is a contradiction,” he admitted in the interview with the American show 60 Minutes.

‘How does someone who doesn’t believe in the supernatural explain that something that feels like a miracle has happened? I have no explanation for that.’

Sir Salman, 76, is the author of the 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which led to Iran’s supreme leader calling for his death and a £2.5m bounty placed on his head.

Sir Salman, 76, is the author of the 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which led to Iran’s supreme leader calling for his death and a £2.5m bounty placed on his head

In the decades since, he said, he had ‘sometimes imagined my assassin standing up in a public forum’.

He added that his first thought when he saw his attacker approaching him at New York’s Chautauqua Institution was: ‘So it’s you. Here you are.’

The novelist has written an account of the stabbing called Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder, which will be published next week.