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The Booker Prize-winning Salman Rushdie, who was repeatedly stabbed two months ago during a lecture in New York state, has lost sight in one eye and has no function in one hand, his agent, Andrew Wylie, has said.
Wylie declined to comment on whether Rushdie remains in hospital, but stressed that the author is recovering and will live.
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Rushdie, 75, has been the victim of several death threats and assassination attempts over his fourth novel “The Satanic Verses,” which fictionally challenges some of the core tenets of the portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
The former Supreme Leader of Iran issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989, after which Salman spent nine years in hiding under the protection of British police.
In an interview with Spain’s El Pais, Wylie detailed the extent of the attack as “brutal,” saying that many of Rushdie’s nerves to his hand were severed during the stabbing and that he has a long road to recovery ahead of him.
“[His wounds] were profound, but he’s [also] lost the sight of one eye,” he said. “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.”
The 24-year-old perpetrator in the August attack was arraigned in New York where a grand jury charged him with one count of attempted murder and one count of assault. He remains held without bail.
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