Some of America’s most famous writers, including Paul Auster and Gay Tallis, gathered on Friday to read excerpts from the works of Salman Rushdie, expressing their solidarity with the 75-year-old writer who was the victim of a bloody attack last week.

On the steps of the majestic Manhattan Public Library, more than ten famous authors spoke, including people from his inner circle. Salman Rushdie was invited to watch the event online from his hospital room.

On August 12, the author of The Satanic Verses was scheduled to speak at an event for the Chotokwa Foundation in New York City when a man ran onto the stage and stabbed him several times in the neck and stomach.

He was airlifted to the hospital and had to be given mechanical assistance after the operation until his condition improved.

Writer and journalist Gay Tallis, wearing her favorite fedora hat, read an excerpt from The House of Gold, while Irish writer Colum McCann selected an excerpt from Salman Rushdie’s 1992 New Yorker essay “From Kansas”. .

Mr Rushdie has “always been on top of things,” McCann said, adding that he “will say something serious” when he recovers.

“That’s why we’re here”

Salman Rushdie set fire to the Muslim world with his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which was called “blasphemous”, and Iran’s then supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a religious decree (fatfa) calling for his assassination. The writer of Indian origin was forced to live for years under hunting conditions and under police protection.

Harry Kanzrow, a British writer and journalist, read a passage from the beginning of the book that radically changed Salman Rushdie’s life. “Salman once wrote that the role of a writer is to name the unspeakable, show the scammers, take a stand, start a conversation, change the world and wake it up,” he said. “That’s why we’re here,” he stressed.

“A Hero at a High Price”

Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Lebanese American who was arrested shortly after Rushdie was attacked, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in court on Thursday.

“Even a blade to the throat couldn’t silence Salman Rushdie,” said Suzanne Nossel, president of American PEN.

Before reading the passage in turn, British writer Tina Brown told Salman Rushdie, “You never asked to be a hero. You just wanted to write. But the tenacity with which you defended freedom of speech made you a hero, and you paid a high price.”

For writer and historian Amanda Foreman, Friday’s event showed that “we are all ready to stand up for what we believe in.”

Salman Rushdie was born in 1947 in India to Muslim parents, lived in New York for 20 years and became a US citizen in 2016.

Despite threats against him, he appeared in public more and more often, without apparent protection, while continuing to defend satire and irreverence in his books. In an interview he gave to the German magazine Stern a few days before he received the deadly attack, he appeared optimistic and stated: “Since I came to the United States, I have no more problems… My life is back to normal.” . “

^{Sources: APE-MPE, AFP.}