LONDON – The gripping account of Salman Rushdie’s harrowing experience of a stabbing attack that left him blind in one eye has been announced as a contender for the prestigious nonfiction book prize. Rushdie’s memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” has made it to the long list of 12 books vying for the £50,000 ($66,000) Baillie Gifford Prize.
In his book, Rushdie candidly recounts the horrific incident that took place at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York in 2022 while he was preparing to deliver a lecture on the safety of writers. The perpetrator, Hadi Matar from New Jersey, is currently awaiting trial for the attack.
The judges lauded Rushdie’s book as “brutally clear, honest, and, best of all, funny.”
Salman Rushdie, known for winning the Booker Prize for fiction in 1981 for his novel “Midnight’s Children,” has faced numerous challenges throughout his career, including years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him in 1989.
Other notable contenders for the nonfiction prize include Richard Flanagan’s memoir “Question 7” and works on Asian history such as Gary J. Bass’ “Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia” and Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial.”
Established in 1999, the Baillie Gifford Prize celebrates English-language books from different genres, bringing them to a wider audience and fostering appreciation for fact-based literature.
Last year’s winner, John Vaillant’s “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World,” underscored the importance of compelling storytelling rooted in real-life events.
Stay tuned for the announcement of the finalists for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize on October 10, with the winner set to be revealed at a ceremony in London on November 19.
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