Interviewed by Roberto Saviano at the Book Fair, Salman Rushdie demonstrated a subtle irony and intellectual stature. It is an intense vitality that is the best response to religious fanaticism. Salman Rushdie talked about his latest book Knife (Mondadori) in which he also invents a dialogue with his attacker who was not yet born when Khomeini launched the fatwa against him for a book, The satanic verses, “which my opponents haven’t even read,” Rushdie emphasized again.
For me it is a mystery, he is a man with a clean criminal record, he is 24 years old and lived in New Jersey. What little we know about him is not enough to provide an explanation. Four years before the attack, he went to visit his father in Lebanon who lives on the border with Israel in the area controlled by Hezbollah. He was there only a month and his mother claimed that after returning from that trip he had changed: he had locked himself in the cellar and lived isolated, watching videos. Then suddenly she saw the announcement of my conference and decided to target me. There are too many holes in this story. So in the book he becomes a more convincing character than he is in reality
I love Salman Rushdie very much. For me, his masterpiece remains Midnight’s Children. PHENOMENAL. So I stood in a long line, waited two hours to listen to him because Rushdie, in addition to being one of the greatest living novelists, is the plastic representation of what a man, having become a target, can do to react to terror. And that is first to live(without escort). Rushdie has lived many happy years since he decided to live without escort before Hadi Matar, in August 2022, attempted to kill him with 15 stab wounds. I enjoyed listening to him for his very British jokes, for his sagacious observations on the times we live in and for the continuous praise of his life. And I saw him become serious, with an almost gloomy expression, only when he said: “We thought that freedom of expression was a given but it has never been in danger like today.” Long live Salman Rushdie and his 22 books, written with an extraordinary intellectual freedom that today has become like a precious treasure chest.
? There are a few days left for the FajaFest on Albanian literature
With spring, Albanian literature arrives. Next Saturday and Sunday there will be the first event dedicated to the novel and the translation of the Land of Eagles. This is an important opportunity to learn about the choral novel that narrates the past history, the present with its many nuances and also a bit of the future of Albania. TOthe Slow Mill Cultural Center in via Volturno 32 in the Isola district, writers, scholars, editors, translators and journalists will arrive. Several prominent names will participate in the literary event never before held in Italy.
FajaFest will end on Sunday with the FjalaFest 2024 Translation Prize ceremony organized by Albania Letteraria, the Dora and Pajtimit association and the Slow Mill cultural center (and financed by the Albanian Book and Reading Centre) which will be awarded to Giovanna Nanci to enhance the translators, fundamental and always too mistreated.
Here is some information to understand who you can meet at FajaFest (here you will find the program and biographies of the participants). Mimosa Hysa for example wrote The general’s daughters: the story of Marsina and Martina, two twin daughters of a high-ranking career soldier during the communist dictatorship in Albania. The sisters share the same love for the two men in their lives: for their communist father and for Jeton, who however comes from a “stained” family. A psychological novel, made up of surprising developments and split characters. And it is precisely through the double, or rather the doubling, that the author tells us about Enver Hoxha’s regime with an introspective approach. Among the many authors there will also be Eltjon Bida, already interviewed by NRW: in his books he explains well what illegality and redemption are. NRW will be media partner. Save the date.
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