Sarah Shaffi
Rushdie’s Twitter account was inactive for a period following the attack, but the author begun posting again at the end of last year.
He has also supported friend Hanif Kureishi’s recovery from a fall and spinal surgery, with Kureishi tweeting: “My friend Salman Rushdie, one of the bravest men I know, a man who has stood up to the most evil form of Islamofascism, writes to me every single day, encouraging patience. He should know. He gives me courage.” Salman Rushdie’s recovery is progressing after the attack on him five months ago, but he will not be promoting his new novel, his agent has confirmed.
Rushdie wrote Victory City before was attacked at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state, leaving him with the loss of sight in one eye and without the use of one hand. It will be his first book to have been published since then. Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said the author’s “recovery is progressing, but he will not be making any public appearances to promote his forthcoming novel”.
Presented as an abridged translation of a fictitious Sanskrit verse saga, long buried in a pot in the ground and now retold by a “humble” narrator, Victory City opens in a magical version of 14th-century India. The original author of the poem starts life as a young orphan girl, Pampa Kampana; she is possessed by the goddess Parvati and becomes instrumental in founding a great city, Bisnaga. After a short time in power, and amid much dynastic wrangling, Pampa plots her return from exile and faces death threats and attacks….
After the truth-shower 