Salman Rushdie, the British author attacked by a Muslim extremist earlier this summer as he prepared to deliver a lecture in New York, has lost the use of one hand and is blind in one eye. Rushie, 75, has long lived under the threat of a fatwa declared by Iranian ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini over this novel The Satanic Verses. Rushie accurately predicted the circumstances of the nearly-fatal stabbing: "The principal danger that he faced so many years after the fatwa was imposed is from a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking [him]," he said.
"[His wounds] were profound, but he's [also] lost the sight of one eye," said [Andrew] Wylie. "He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack." The agent declined to say whether Rushdie was still in hospital, saying the most important thing was that the writer was going to live.
