Salman Rushdie makes surprise appearance at PEN America gala

NEW YORK – British-American novelist Salman Rushdie walked on stage at PEN America’s annual gala on Thursday night, his first public appearance since he was stabbed and gravely wounded

in an August 2022 attack

at a literary event in western New York.

The 75-year-old’s appearance at the gala, which had not been announced, was a surprise. But no surprise to those who know him was that he began his speech with a joke.

“Well, hi everybody,” Rushdie said, as the crowd at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan greeted him with whoops and a standing ovation. “It’s nice to be back – as opposed to not being back, which was also an option. I’m pretty glad the dice rolled this way.”

In an interview, Rushdie, who lost sight in one eye because of the attack, said that if there was a right thing to choose as a re-entry, “it’s this. It’s being part of the world of books, the fight against censorship and for human rights”.

The evening marked a triumphant return for a man who had not let the lingering threat from the Iranian government’s 1989 fatwa get in the way of being an exuberant fixture on the social scene of New York.

Rushdie also hailed those who had rushed to restrain his attacker at the Chautauqua Institution in the August 2022 attack and saved his life.

“I was the target that day, but they were the heroes,” he said. “The courage that day was all theirs.”

“Terrorism must not terrorise us,” he continued. “Violence must not deter us.” NYTIMES