Hay Festival Book Club - May 2024
Knife by Salman Rushdie
From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring — and surviving — an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him.
Speaking out with openness and honesty about the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, Rushdie answers violence with art, and reminds us of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable. Knife is a gripping, intimate, and ultimately life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art — and finding the strength to stand up again.
Read it? Let us know what you think on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram using #HFBookClub.
Further reading
Salman Rushdie is recovering, reflecting, and writing about the attack on his life, Time
Salman Rushdie: 'Writers have no armies', DW
About the author
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, and Quichotte, all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize; a collection of stories, East, West; a memoir, Joseph Anton; a work of reportage, The Jaguar Smile; and three collections of essays, most recently Languages of Truth. His many awards include the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, which he won twice; the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award; the National Arts Award; the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger; the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature; the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature; and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour. In 2023, he was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year.
About Hay Festival Book Club
Timeless titles to offer you a break from the day to day. Can't decide what to read next? Follow your curiosity and join Hay Festival on a journey to imagine the world anew through great literature. Unconstrained by genre or form these are our monthly picks of great books worth reading (or re-reading) right now.
Throughout the month, we'll share interesting links and articles relating to our selection on social media using #HFBookClub and invite you all to get involved with your questions and comments. Each selection will also be marked with a free online event.
If you'd like to recommend a book for consideration, get in touch via bookclub@hayfestival.org.
Happy reading!