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Knife
- Author
- Salman Rushdie
- Narrator
- Salman Rushdie
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 16 April 2024
- Run Time
- 6 hours 23 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Memoirs, Autobiography: writers, True stories of heroism, endurance and survival, Religious intolerance, persecution and conflict, Ethical issues: censorship / freedom of expression
- Rating
- 5.0 (2 reviews)
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
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 for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, Salman 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.
©2024 Salman Rushdie (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Critics Review
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It is an absolutely stunning piece of writing: the ugliest thing turned into the most beautiful. No words of mine can do it justice. But I do have to say that it’s such a profound love story, too.
Nigella Lawson
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Salman Rushdie’s memoir is horrific, upsetting – and a masterpiece… Knife is a tour-de-force, in which the great novelist takes his brutal near-murder and spins it into a majestic essay on art, pain and love…full of Rushdie’s wit, his wisdom, his stoicism, his optimism, his love of all culture from the so-called “high” to the so-called “low”.
Daily Telegraph
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Knife is a rich, immersive, feisty account of [Rushdie's] journey through darkness back to the light. Part thriller, part love story, part celebration of literature, it’s an incandescent book full of hair-raising descriptions of hard-won survival and beautiful, philosophical passages about art, freedom and resilience…Rushdie has not just enlarged literature’s capacities, he has expanded the world’s imaginative possibilities — and he has paid a tremendous price for it. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
The Times
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Rushdie’s triumph is not to be other: despite his terrible injuries and the threat he still lives under, he remains incorrigibly himself, as passionate as ever about art and free speech... At one point he quotes Martin Amis: “When you publish a book, you either get away with it, or you don’t.” He has more than got away with this one. It’s scary but heartwarming, a story of hatred defeated by love.
The Guardian
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With both candour and rich detail, and reminding us again of his knack for storytelling, Knife celebrates art and love over violence, resilience over acquiescence
i, *Books to Look Out for 2024*
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Knife is a clarifying book. It reminds us of the threats the free world faces. It reminds us of the things worth fighting for. Rushdie’s friend Christopher Hitchens, in the wake of the initial fatwa, eloquently explained the stakes. The affair drew a line between “everything I hated versus everything I loved,” he wrote. “In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual and the defense of free expression.” His words apply to this book.
New York Times
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Although the account of his violent ordeal is dramatic…the book is also a nuanced meditation on life, death, the importance of art, and the chilling daily reality of violence... the book fulfils his aim to take charge of what happened on that terrible day and “to answer violence with art"
The Independent
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Rushdie has never written quite as directly as this, or emotionally. He emerges as stoic, droll, and astonishingly brave. “There are moments when these events are painful to set down,” he says. They’re painful to read, too, but necessary. As simple testimony, it makes for an incredibly compelling reading experience. The aim of the attack was ultimately to silence him. The aim failed. Salman Rushdie is a writer. The pen proved mightier than the sword after all.
i news
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Brave and compelling… Knife isn’t only Rushdie’s finest book in years, it’s also his most enjoyable
Daily Mail, *Book of the Week*
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A surprisingly tender and redemptive story
Economist
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
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5.0 5.0
Completely wonderful. I had tears in my eyes at times. The courage of this man and his wife is a lesson to anybody who survives minor or major trauma. Heartily recommend!
Reggie 2024-07-23
Details
- Author
- Salman Rushdie
- Narrator
- Salman Rushdie
- Duration
- 6 hours 23 minutes
- Release Date
- 16 April 2024
- ISBN
- 9781529933055
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Memoirs, Autobiography: writers, True stories of heroism, endurance and survival, Religious intolerance, persecution and conflict, Ethical issues: censorship / freedom of expression
- Rating
- 5.0(2 reviews)
- Narration
- 5.0(2 reviews)
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.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 for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, Salman 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.©2024 Salman Rushdie (P)2024 Penguin Audio
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