Weekend Listen: Salman Rushdie Isn’t Afraid of Free Speech

Salman Rushdie was nearly killed when he was stabbed 15 times on stage in upstate New York in 2022. His injuries were so severe that he lost an eye. It was an attack that came decades after he was first subjected to death threats over his novel, The Satanic Verses.

Once he had recovered, he found he was unable to write fiction. However, after publishing an account of what happened to him, the stories returned, with five brought together in his latest book, The Eleventh Hour.

In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Rushdie talks about free speech, the family connection they both share and the places he’s called home, from India to Britain and the US.

02:30 - “Don’t waste your time”
04:40 - Writing as a form of optimism
05:00 - Starting out as a writer
08:00 - Meeting E.M. Forster as a teenager
10:00 - “You write the story to find out what story you’re writing”
11:15 - Writing Midnight’s Children
12:46 - The family connection between Salman Rushdie and Mishal Husain
14:35 - The women in the family
16:00 - Getting together as a family
17:55 - Returning to India to write about childhood
20:30 - Reclaiming India
22:55 - India today and Prime Minister Modi
24:24 - “If you’re paying attention you see things coming”
24:50 - The family reacts to Midnight’s Children
26:44 - A farewell to India?
28:45 - Before and after the fatwa
31:30 - Defending free speech
32:25 - Banning books in the US
34:30 - Zohran Mamdani’s campaign
38:50 - The next novel
40:25 - “I’m a bit clumsier”

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

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