On August 12, 2022, a man tried to kill Salman Rushdie. As the author prepared to deliver a talk in Chautauqua, N.Y.—on, ironically enough, the importance of keeping writers safe from harm—his assailant leapt up from the audience, ran on stage toward Rushdie, and stabbed him repeatedly in a frenzy of violence that was witnessed by well over a thousand people. Rushdie was later told that the knifeman had 27 seconds with him, during which he inflicted terrible, life-altering wounds that included blinding Rushdie in his right eye and severing much of the feeling in his left hand. As the would-be killer was dragged away, injuring the event’s host Henry Reese in the process, news of the attack was swiftly distributed over the global media. It was widely believed that the injuries were too severe for Rushdie to survive them.
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