Figures from the American literary world, such as writers Paul Auster and Gay Talese, gathered on Friday for a reading of the work of Salman Rushdie, in support of the author who was seriously injured in a knife attack last week.
A dozen well-known writers, including people close to Salman Rushdie, spoke on the steps of Manhattan's majestic public library.
The author was invited to follow the event online, from his hospital room.
On August 12, Salman Rushdie, who wrote
The Satanic Verses
, was about to speak at a conference in upstate New York when a man burst onto the stage and stabbed him. several times, in the neck and abdomen.
Evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, he had to be briefly placed on a ventilator before his condition improved.
Writer and journalist Gay Talese, wearing his signature fedora hat, read an excerpt from the novel
The Golden House
, while Irish author Colum McCann recited a passage from the essay
Out of Kansas
, published by Salman Rushdie in the New Yorker magazine in 1992. Salman Rushdie
"has always risen to the occasion
," said Colum McCann.
“I think he will have something profound to say”
once recovered, he continued.
The American AM Homes – including some of the books, like
The End of Alice
,
On Censorship
).
"Anti-Creation"
“No writer really wants to talk about censorship
,” she ranted.
"Writers want to talk about creation, and censorship is anti-creation."
Salman Rushdie set part of the Islamic world ablaze with the publication of The
Satanic Verses
in 1988, leading Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination.
The author had been forced to live in hiding and under police protection, going from hiding place to hiding place.
Hari Kunzru, British novelist and journalist, recited the beginning of this book which radically transformed the life of Salman Rushdie.
"Salman once wrote that the role of a writer is to name the unspeakable, to show the imposters, to take sides, to start debates, to shape the world and keep it from falling asleep,"
said he said.
"That's why we're here."
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.
“Not even a blade through the throat could silence the voice of Salman Rushdie
,” Suzanne Nossel, president of the association for the defense of writers around the world, PEN America, said on Friday.
Before reading a text in turn, British author Tina Brown spoke directly to Salman Rushdie:
"You never asked to play the role of a hero
," she said.
"You just wanted to write"
, continued Tina Brown.
"But the tenacity with which you defended freedom of expression made you a hero, and you paid a heavy price."
For writer and historian Amanda Foreman, Friday's mobilization
“shows that people are not afraid”.
"We are all ready to stand up for what we believe in
," she told AFP.
Salman Rushdie, born in 1947 in India into a family of non-practicing Muslim intellectuals, had lived in New York for twenty years and had become an American citizen in 2016. Despite the threat, he had appeared more and more frequently in public, often without visible protection, while continuing to defend satire and irreverence in his books.
In an interview given to the German magazine Stern a few days before Friday's attack, he said he was
"optimistic"
and said:
“Since I have been living in the United States, I no longer have any problems (...) My life is back to normal.”