Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

When he attacked Salman Rushdie, Hadi Matar was a 24-year-old Californian Shi’ite Muslim who had recently moved to New Jersey to live with his mother. Matar, whose mental health had been in decline for several years, had become depressed, withdrawn, and increasingly fixated on the extremist views of fundamentalist Islam. His mother noticed that these changes accelerated after Matar visited his father in Lebanon in 2018. Prosecutors believe that Matar may have been influenced during this visit by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah. Although Matar claimed to be acting on his own and denied having any relationship with Iranian groups at the time of the attack, The Foundation to Implement Imam Khomeini's Fatwas (an Iranian foundation with ties to the Iranian government) subsequently offered Matar farmland as a reward for his attempt on Rushdie’s life.

Rushdie’s account does not refer to Matar by name. Instead, he calls Matar “the A.,” which Rushdie links to words like “Assailant,” “Assassin,” “Assumptions,” and “Asinine” (5). The book’s portrayal of Matar, largely conveyed through the imagined interview that makes up most of Chapter 6, “The A.,” characterizes Matar as a sexually frustrated loner deluded by fundamentalist Muslim internet media, video games, and replacement father-figures in Lebanon into taking violent action that Matar himself lacked the intellectual capacity to fully understand. This portrait of Matar supports Rushdie’s beliefs about organized religion, highlighting one of the book’s main themes: The Role of Religion. In addition, his portrait of Matar is a key part of Knife’s functioning as a kind of therapy, or catharsis, for Rushdie in the wake of the stabbing.

American poet, novelist, and artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths is Salman Rushdie’s fifth wife. Her books of poetry include Miracle Arrhythmia, The Requited Distance, Mule & Pear, Lighting the Shadow, and Seeing the Body. Her first novel, published in 2023, is Promise. Her works have been well-received: Her poetry has received the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award. Griffiths has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award and has served as the Stella Adler Poet-in-Residence. Her novel Promise was shortlisted for the 2024 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novels, but she withdrew the novel from consideration as a finalist because of PEN America’s failure to speak out meaningfully against the violence in Gaza.

Rushdie characterizes Griffiths as a smart, capable woman of many talents. He repeatedly marvels that she is not just a poet and novelist—something he already sees as a significant achievement—but also a well-regarded visual artist in both photography and film. Her love for and dedication to Rushdie is evident throughout the memoir. It recalls how she rushed to his side, at great expense, as soon as she learned that he was injured, hid her own fear and distress to be strong for Rushdie, and capably managed all aspects of his care and recovery, including arranging for security after his release from rehab. Rushdie depicts her as sometimes a partner in his enthusiasms, as when they worked together to record footage for the proposed documentary film, and at other times a cautious check against his getting carried away by his enthusiasms, as when she warned him not to dance outside the jail where his attacker was being held. Rushdie’s portrayals of her love and her suffering after the attempt on his life are important components of two of the book’s themes: The Devastating Impact of Violence and The Power of Love.

One of Salman Rushdie’s three younger sisters, Sameen Rushdie is the member of his birth family he remains closest to. The two are just over a year apart in age and grew up together in Bombay until Rushdie was sent to school in Britain at age 13. In Knife, Rushdie shares a few memories of their early years together; one story he tells is about a time that Sameen, then about eight years old, beat up another boy who she thought was being mean to Salman. This story, like his portrayal of her fierce support throughout his convalescence, illustrates The Power of Love as a major theme in his memoir. They again lived together after Rushdie finished school and returned briefly to live with the family, which had moved to Karachi, Pakistan.

Sameen is the author of Sameen Rushdie’s Indian Cookery, first published in Britain in 1988, which she wrote to counteract prevalent stereotypes about Indian food. Additionally, she has taught Indian cooking classes, using both old family recipes and her extensive knowledge of the country’s various regional cuisines. Sameen, like her brother, is secular, outspoken, and cosmopolitan. She has two daughters and lives in London. Rushdie’s deep ties to Sameen and his respect for her opinions are clear in Knife.