Salman Rushdie

Ahmed Salman Rushdie (Bombay, 1947) is a British novelist and essayist whose work, which has been translated into more than forty languages, has received numerous awards and prizes. Considered to be one of the most significant writers of contemporary literature, he is author of more than a dozen novels, among them Midnight’s Children (1981 – in Catalan, Els fills de la mitjanit), The Satanic Verses (1988 – in Catalan, Els versos satànics), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999 – in Catalan, La terra sota els seus peus), Luka and the Fire of Life (2010 – in Catalan, Luka i el foc de la vida), Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015 – in Catalan, Dos anys, vuit mesos i vint-i-vuit nits), and Victory City (2023 – in Spanish, Ciudad Victoria). He has also published the collection of short stories East, West (1994 in Spanish, Este, Oeste), and major books of non-fiction, including Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991 (1992 – in Spanish, Patrias imaginarias), and Joseph Anton. A Memoir (2012 – in Spanish, Joseph Anton. Memorias del tiempo de la Fatua).

In 1989, with the publication of The Satanic Verses, the Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwah condemning Rushdie to death. The fatwah still has its effects. In August 2022, as a result of this work, Rushdie was attacked at a public event in New York. A standard bearer in the struggle for freedom of expression, Rushdie has received many prestigious awards, notable amongst which are the Edgerton Prize of the American Civil Liberties Union, and he has also been created a Knight Bachelor of the British Empire and has been named Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.