Author Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye as well as the use of one of his hands as a result of the attack he suffered last month, as confirmed to El País by his agent.
“[His wounds] were profound, but he’s [also] lost the sight of one eye,” said his agent Andrew Wylie. “He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack.”
He would not say whether or not Rushdie is still in the hospital, but emphasized the important point was that he was going to live.
Wylie noted that the attack was random, completely unexpected, and illogical. He compared it to the murder of John Lennon.
Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old who is accused of stabbing Rushdie pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges when he was arraigned in August.
Only two weeks prior to the attack, Rushdie said he felt his life was “very normal again” was no longer worried about any such attack.
Salman Rushdie has received many of the most prestigious awards in literature, including the Booker Prize. In 1999, he was appointed a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature in 2007.