Knife

Salman Rushdie's account of the 2022 attack on him turns quickly from the event itself to what living through it afterwards demanded. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder follows the recovery in physical, emotional and intellectual terms, and keeps circling back to the questions the attack raised about free expression, love, fear and the usefulness of writing anything at all. The wit survives the subject matter, and the reflections stay anchored in specific experience rather than general statements about courage. Readers new to his work will find the prose direct and accessible; readers who know the novels will recognise the voice immediately. What you'll find in these pages: • First-hand memoir of survival and slow recovery • Reflection on freedom of expression and its costs • Writing about marriage and support during illness • A literary novelist working in direct nonfiction A strong pick for readers of contemporary memoir and literary nonfiction, available at Boipoka.