London: Salman Rushdie has been having ‘crazy dreams’ after surviving a near-fatal knife attack in New York last August.
The 76-year-old Booker Prize-winning author was on stage almost a year ago when he was stabbed up to 10 times by Hadi Matar, who is in prison on charges of attempted murder and will face trial later this year.
The Mumbai-born author, who became blind in one eye following the scary attack, works with a therapist to help him process the mental impact of the trauma.
“I have a very good therapist who has a lot of work to do… I have crazy dreams,” the British-American novelist told BBC.
Rushdie said he was in “two minds” on whether to face his alleged attacker, who has pleaded not guilty, in court.
“If he changes his plea to guilty, then actually there’s no trial, just a sentencing… and it may well be that then my presence isn’t required. I’m in two minds about it. There’s one bit of me that actually wants to go and stand on the court and look at him, and there’s another bit of me that just can’t be bothered.
“I don’t have a very high opinion of him. And I think what is important to me now is that you’re able to find life continuing. I’m more engaged with the business of, you know, getting on with it,” he said when asked if he plans to attend Matar’s trial.
Besides loss of vision in his right eye, the author of ‘Midnight’s Children’ suffered damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm.
“The human body has an amazing capacity to heal. And so I’m fortunate to be well on that way,” Rushdie said, adding that he feels physically “more or less okay.”
The British American author, who was put on a ventilator and spent six weeks in hospital, is writing a book about the near-fatal stabbing incident.
“There’s this colossal elephant in the room and, until I deal with that, it is difficult to take anything else seriously,” Rushdie said, further informing that the book won’t be more than a “couple of hundred pages” long.
The New York resident finished his last book ‘Victory City’ just before the attack in August 2022 and has been well-received by critics.
A fatwa was issued against Rushdie by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini for his controversial novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ more than three decades ago. He also received several death threats.
