They speak in the name of the writer that we wanted to silence.
Figures from the American literary world, such as writers Paul Auster and Gay Talese, gathered in New York on Friday for a public reading of the work of Salman Rushdie, in support of the British author who was stabbed last week.
“Not even a blade through the throat could silence the voice of Salman Rushdie,” said Suzanne Nossel, president of the association for the defense of writers around the world, PEN America, who initiated the rally, on Friday.
More than a dozen esteemed writers, including friends and colleagues of Salman Rushdie, spoke on the steps of Manhattan's grand public library.
The author was invited to follow the event online from his hospital room.
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'Salman Rushdie ran for his life': new testimonies of the attack
On August 12, the author of "Satanic Verses" was stabbed several times, including in the neck and abdomen in the small town of Chautauqua in New York State, the site of an annual literary festival.
He had been evacuated by helicopter to a hospital and had to be briefly placed on a ventilator before his condition improved.
“He will have something deep to say”
Gay Talese, wearing his traditional hat, read an excerpt from the novel "The Golden House", while the Irish writer Colum McCann recited a passage from the essay "Out of Kansas", published by Salman Rushdie in the magazine New Yorker in 1992.
Salman Rushdie “has always risen to the occasion,” said Colum McCann.
“I think he will have something profound to say,” once he recovers, he continued.
Read also“Congratulations to this wonderful man”: in Iran, the assailant of Salman Rushdie congratulated
Salman Rushdie set part of the Islamic world ablaze with the publication of “Satanic Verses” in 1988, leading Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination.
The author of fifteen novels, stories for young people, short stories and essays written in English had been forced to live in hiding and under police protection, going from hiding place to hiding place.
Arrested immediately after the incident, Salman Rushdie's attacker, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Lebanese-American, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault on Thursday in a first appearance following his indictment by a major jury.