![Rushdie's first thought on attempted assassin: 'So it's you'](https://www.berlinertageblatt.de/media/shared/articles/de/9a/b2/Rushdie-s-first-thought-on-attempte-629522.jpg)
-
Coughlin clings to lead at LPGA Canadian Women's Open
-
Trump offers tech sector policy flips ahead of election
-
Spacecraft to swing by Earth, Moon on path to Jupiter
-
What's the fallout of Mexican drug lords' capture?
-
Video game makers see actors as AI 'data,' says union on strike
-
Chinese qualifier Shang to face Thompson in ATP Atlanta semis
-
Concern grows as Venezuela blocks election observers
-
'Massive attack' on French rail threatens more chaos
-
'We did it!': France breathes sigh of relief after Olympics ceremony
-
Blinken, in Laos, set for talks with Chinese foreign minister
-
Regional concern grows as Venezuela blocks vote observers
-
Historic river parade, Dion show-stopper ignite Paris Olympics
-
Rainy Paris Olympic parade dampens many spectators' spirits
-
G20 pledges to work together to tax ultra-rich
-
The one of a kind Paris opening ceremony: five memorable moments
-
Justin Timberlake seeks to dismiss DUI case
-
Warner Brothers Discovery sues NBA over Amazon rights deal
-
Kobe Bryant locker, Maradona jersey up for auction in New York
-
Historic river parade launches Paris Olympics
-
Stocks rise as US inflation data boosts rate cut hopes
-
New York family of Holocaust victim reclaims Nazi-looted art
-
NASA Mars rover captures rock that could hold fossilized microbes
-
Thousands evacuate season's biggest wildfire in northern California
-
Sinaloa Cartel co-founder pleads not guilty after stunning US capture
-
Ethiopia mourns victims of landslide tragedy
-
Lady Gaga adds sparkle to star-studded Olympic show
-
Airbus and Boeing supremacy secure despite turbulence
-
Teams sail down Seine in rain-soaked Olympics opening ceremony
-
Norris hoping for more after topping Belgian practice times
-
West Indies' treble strike rocks England in third Test
-
Trump slams rivals as he meets Netanyahu in Florida
-
Olympic opening ceremony under way on River Seine
-
Mott's England future uncertain as ECB chief fails to offer support
-
Trump meets Israeli PM Netanyahu in Florida
-
S.African police say 95 Libyans detained at suspected military camp
-
Blinken set for talks with Chinese counterpart in Laos
-
Norris heads Piastri in McLaren one-two at Belgian GP practice
-
G20 seeks common ground on taxing super-rich
-
European medicines watchdog rejects new Alzheimer's drug
-
Harris gets vital Obama backing in battle against Trump
-
Habib, Ebden eye Alcaraz and Djokovic shocks at Olympics tennis
-
Stocks rise as inflation data boosts rate cut hopes
-
Long queues, ticketing problems ahead of Paris opening ceremony
-
Two Sinaloa Cartel leaders face US charges after stunning capture
-
Spain train driver jailed for 2.5 years over deadly 2013 crash
-
Paris poised for Olympic opening ceremony spectacular
-
Judoka fails doping test in first case at Paris Olympics
-
Holder and Da Silva keep England at bay after West Indies collapse
-
Alpine F1 boss Bruno Famin to leave in August
-
Ethiopia declares three days of mourning after landslide tragedy
![Rushdie's first thought on attempted assassin: 'So it's you'](https://www.berlinertageblatt.de/media/shared/articles/de/9a/b2/Rushdie-s-first-thought-on-attempte-629522.jpg)
Rushdie's first thought on attempted assassin: 'So it's you'
Salman Rushdie, targeted for assassination since 1989 over his writing, had long wondered who would kill him. When he was stabbed almost fatally, his first thought was, "So it's you."
The novelist has recounted his thoughts on his 2022 near death in a book, "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder," which is set for publication on Tuesday.
In an excerpt from the book which he read for the CBS News show "60 Minutes," Rushdie described "the last thing my right eye would ever see" -- a man in black clothes "coming in hard and low" like a "squat missile."
"I confess, I had sometimes imagined my assassin rising up in some public forum or other, and coming for me in just this way. So my first thought when I saw this murderous shape rushing towards me was, 'So it's you. Here you are.'"
The Mumbai-born novelist -- acclaimed for his novel "Midnight's Children," a magical realist take on the Indian subcontinent's partition -- faced a storm of criticism in the Muslim world in 1988 when he released "The Satanic Verses," which touches on early Islam including through dream sequences that reference the Prophet Mohammed.
Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie, who went into hiding in Britain. He has since become a naturalized American.
Rushdie, 76, in recent years has lived with greater openness and became a presence on the New York social circuit. He was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant in August 2022 as he prepared to speak at an arts gathering in New York state.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Rushdie said that one of the surgeons who saved him told him, "'First you were really unlucky and then you were really lucky.'"
"I said, 'What's the lucky part?' And he said 'Well, the lucky part is that the man who attacked you had no idea how to kill a man with a knife.'"
F.Müller--BTB