Salman Rushdie has lost use of an eye and a hand after attack, agent says

Salman Rushdie’s agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand, as he recovers from an attack from a man who rushed the stage at an August literary event in western New York, according to a published report.

Literary agent Andrew Wylie tells the Spanish language newspaper El Pais that Rushdie suffered three serious wounds to his neck and 15 more wounds to his chest and torso in the attack that took away sight in an eye and left a hand incapacitated.

Rushdie, 75, spent years in hiding, after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 edict, a fatwa, calling for his death after publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.

Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, was incarcerated after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the August 12 attack on Rushdie, as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution, a rurally located center, 55 miles southwest of Buffalo, that is known for its summertime lecture series.

After the attack, Rushdie was treated at a Pennsylvania hospital, where he was briefly put on a ventilator to recover from what Wylie tells El Pais was a “brutal attack” that cut the nerves to one arm.

Wylie tells the newspaper he cannot not say whether Rushdie remained in a hospital or discuss his whereabouts.

“He’s going to live… That’s the important thing,” Wylie says.