Free expression, courage and all go together.
The generational fiction writer lived for decades under a death sentence and survived a stabbing attack in 2022. Now, Rushdie鈥檚 pen triumphs over the sword as he publishes his first work of fiction since that attack 3 years ago.
鈥溾�� is a collection of short stories and novellas with his signature wit and magical realism.
Rushdie won the Booker Prize in 1981 for 鈥淢idnight鈥檚 Children.鈥� His novel 鈥淪atanic Verses鈥� came out in 1988, leading Iran鈥檚 Ayatollah to declare it blasphemous and announce a death warrant for Rushdie, who went into hiding for years.
Now, after surviving the knife attack that took his right eye and the use of one arm, Rushdie joins us to talk about 鈥淭he Eleventh Hour.鈥�
鈥溾�奍 think I surprised everybody, including my doctors, by my recovery,鈥� Rushdie said. 鈥淪o I guess I鈥檓 lucky.鈥�
7 questions with Salman Rushdie
These stories are about the end of life. Why this topic?
鈥溾�奍 think partly it鈥檚 a consequence of my having had a close shave, you know? That focuses the mind on such subjects as mortality. It鈥檚 also just because, you know, I鈥檓 not in the first flush of youth anymore. I mean, I鈥檓 78 now.
鈥淪o that in itself makes you think about the last act, you know, and there鈥檚 a brilliant essay by the writer Edward Said called 鈥極n Late Style,鈥� in which he discusses how artists have approached and should approach the kind of final act. And some people respond with serenity, and others respond with rage. Thinking about that, I thought it鈥檚 not necessarily either-all, you could be peaceful on Monday and angry on Tuesday, you know? So anyway, I began to think about how people engage with that final act. And there鈥檚 different stories and different approaches to that subject.鈥�
Talk about the ghost story in the book.
鈥溾�奣he fact that it became a ghost story took me by surprise. I had thought I was going to write about this elderly gent living out his later years in this college, and it was supposed to be a friendship that he forms with a young Indian woman student. They both have a love of India in common and that brings them together.
鈥淎nd then I sat down to write the story. For some reason, there appeared on my typewriter the words, 鈥榃hen he woke up that morning, he was dead.鈥� I thought, 鈥榃here鈥檇 that come from?鈥� And I just left the sentence sitting there on my laptop for a day or so thinking, 鈥榃hat is this?鈥� And then I thought, you know, 鈥極kay.鈥� As it happens, I鈥檝e never written a ghost story, so time to do one.鈥�
The main character in the ghost story needs to clear his name before he can rest. Why is it important to write about that?
鈥溾�奍n a very much earlier novel, I think actually somewhere in 鈥楾he Satanic Verses,鈥� one of the characters says, 鈥業 know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that鈥檚 what.鈥� It鈥檚 just a passing remark in that novel. It鈥檚 not what the novel鈥檚 about, but I always thought of that idea of a ghost being unfinished business. In the case of this story, finishing that unfinished business became the action of the story. He had to take his revenge against the man who had wronged him.鈥�
鈥奐ustice and revenge are also themes in one other story in your new book, 鈥淭he Musician of Kahani.鈥� As a writer, is it important to think about art and power in this moment, when we know in this country and others, books are disappearing from shelves?
鈥溾�奩es. I do think that it鈥檚 a moment where artists have to consider how to respond to the times we鈥檙e living in, what鈥檚 appropriate and what鈥檚 not appropriate. I don鈥檛 believe that art should be didactic. Speaking as a reader, I don鈥檛 like writers who wag their finger at me and tell me what to think. But what I do think is writing can ask the questions which oblige the reader to answer those questions for himself or herself.
鈥溾�夾nd one of the things that happens in 鈥楾he Musician of Kahani鈥� is this young musician encounters a world of unbelievable wealth and privilege and selfishness and cavalier attitudes, and she has to think what she鈥檚 going to do about it. I was thinking about, for example, there鈥檚 one or two stories that we all know in which music acquires magical powers, and the one that I was thinking of was the Pied Piper, where the Pied Piper with his pipe can use it for good or for wrong. The first occasion, he uses for good to rid the town of its plague of rats, something which any New Yorker would be grateful for. And then he uses it as a kind of weapon of revenge and uses it for evil, if you like, by capturing the town鈥檚 children.
鈥淪o I had this idea of wanting to write about music having magical powers, and I had no idea what the story was or what the magical powers might be. But that germ was sitting in my head for quite a long time and eventually found its expression.鈥�
鈥奍n the last story, in this new book, 鈥淭he Old Men in the Piazza,鈥� you write of a time when it was illegal to argue and use language. In the story is embodied as a woman. What was your intent to give language that particular human form?
鈥溾�奧ell, again, you know, I always like it when it happens to me, when the story surprises me.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 always a sign that the story has life, when the story starts suggesting things to its author. I wasn鈥檛 expecting language to be embodied as a woman. And then one day, when I was working on the story, she just walked into the piazza and sat down on a stool in the corner and announced herself. And I thought, 鈥極h, that鈥檚 so interesting.鈥� I would never have, as it was sat down consciously to think, 鈥業 will characterize language as a person.鈥� But the moment it happened, I thought, 鈥極h, I really like that and I want to see what I could do with that.鈥欌��
Do you sometimes question whether it鈥檚 the right turn to make in the story?
鈥淥f course. Sometimes you have to think, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 not where I wanted to go.鈥� But as I鈥檝e got older, my way of writing has become freer and more willing to see the process as one of discovery, that you discover what you鈥檙e writing by writing it.
鈥淭he way I think about it is that, you know, when I was younger, I was much more structured as a writer. I needed architecture. I needed to hold onto that architecture. And I, the way I tell myself is that it鈥檚 the difference between composing a symphony and playing jazz. It鈥檚 as if my literary inclination has traveled from the symphonic to the more improvisational.鈥�
What does the title 鈥淭he Eleventh Hour鈥� mean to you?
鈥溾�奍 think we live in a perilous time, and so 鈥楾he Eleventh Hour鈥� is not just about individual mortality, but also about civilization. And the danger to that, which I find to be present in these three countries that I鈥檝e spent my life thinking about, India and UK and America. There are variations of that theme in all those places, and so that was very much on my mind as well.鈥�
This interview was edited for clarity.
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produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . adapted it for the web.
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Book excerpt: 鈥楾he Eleventh Hour鈥�
By Salman Rushdie
Excerpted from 鈥淭he Eleventh Hour鈥� by Salman Rushdie. Copyright 漏 2025 by Salman Rushdie. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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