Literary agent Andrew Wylie said in a recent interview that one of Salman Rushdie’s hands is incapacitated from nerve damage and he has also “lost the sight of one eye” following a New York attack in August.
In an article published Saturday, Wylie told the Spanish language newspaper El Pais that Rushdie suffered wounds to his neck and about 15 more injuries to his chest and torso from the attack.
According to The Associated Press, Rushdie had spent years in hiding after Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death after he published the novel “The Satanic Verses.”
In the interview with El Pais, his agent did not discuss where Rushdie was or if he was in a hospital.
“I can’t give any information about his whereabouts. He’s going to live…That’s the more important thing,” Wylie said.
Khomeini died that same year.
2022 New York Stage attack
On August 12, Hadi Matar, 24, ran onto the stage at an event in western New York and stabbed author Salman Rushdie in the neck as he was preparing to give a lecture, according to police.
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen 10 times by the man.
He was flown to a hospital and underwent surgery. Wylie said the writer was put on a ventilator and had a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and an eye that he was likely to lose.
Matar pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted second-degree murder and assault.