Sir Salman Rushdie speaks for the first time about 'colossal attack'

Sir Salman Rushdie has spoken for the archetypal clip astir being stabbed past twelvemonth astatine an lawsuit successful New York.

The award-winning novelist was attacked connected signifier up of a code successful August and spent six weeks successful hospital.

He subsequently mislaid imaginativeness successful 1 eye. Sir Salman has agelong faced decease threats for his 1988 caller The Satanic Verses.

In a wide-ranging interrogation with David Remnick, the novelist said: "I've been better. But, considering what happened, I'm not truthful bad.

"The large injuries are healed, essentially. I person feeling successful my thumb and scale digit and successful the bottommost fractional of the palm. I'm doing a batch of manus therapy, and I'm told that I'm doing precise well."

But helium said it was hard to benignant and to constitute owed to a deficiency of feeling successful immoderate of his fingertips.

"I'm capable to get up and locomotion around. When I accidental I'm fine, I mean, determination are bits of my assemblage that request changeless cheque ups. It was a colossal attack."

He said he's besides has intelligence scars from the onslaught and that helium is having to rethink his attack to security, having lived without it for much than 2 decades.

"There is specified a happening arsenic PTSD, you know," helium said. "I've recovered it very, precise hard to write. I beryllium down to write, and thing happens. I write, but it's a operation of blankness and junk, worldly that I constitute and that I delete the adjacent day. I'm not retired of that wood yet, really."

The antheral suspected of stabbing Salman Rushdie, Hadi Matar, has been charged with attempted murder.

Sir Salman was forced into hiding for astir 10 years aft The Satanic Verses was published successful 1988.

Many Muslims reacted with fury to it, arguing that the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad insulted their faith.

He faced decease threats and the then-Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa - oregon decree - calling for Sir Salman's assassination, placing a $3m (£2.5m) bounty connected the author's head.

The fatwa remains active, and though Iran's authorities has distanced itself from Mr Khomeini's decree, a quasi-official Iranian spiritual instauration added a further $500,000 (£416,000) to the reward successful 2012.

Remnick asked Sir Salman if helium thinks helium should person been much connected defender aft moving to New York successful 2000, having antecedently lived underground for respective years?

"Well, I'm asking myself that question, and I don't cognize the reply to it," helium said. "I did person much than 20 years of life. So, is that a mistake? Also, I wrote a batch of books."

Rushdie's latest novel, Victory City, was finished conscionable earlier the onslaught and is being published aboriginal this week.

"I've ever tried precise hard not to follow the relation of a victim," helium said.

"Then you're conscionable sitting determination saying, 'somebody stuck a weapon successful me! Poor me'... Which I bash sometimes think!"

"But what I don't deliberation is: That's what I privation radical speechmaking the publication to think. I privation them to beryllium captured by the tale, to beryllium carried away."

But helium is alert his latest work, Victory City, volition person to vie with his caller real-life drama.

"I'm hoping that to immoderate grade it mightiness alteration the subject. I've ever thought that my books are much absorbing than my life," helium said. "Unfortunately, the satellite appears to disagree."

He talks astir however the book, acceptable successful 14th Century confederate India, tin beryllium work arsenic an allegory astir the maltreatment of powerfulness and the curse of sectarianism.

Sir Salman is captious of the country's existent Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

"The Modi authorities is precise popular. It has immense support. And that makes it imaginable for them to get distant with everything… to make this precise autocratic state, which is unkind of minorities. Which is fantastically oppressive of journalists. Where radical are precise afraid.

"It's getting hard to telephone it a democracy."