--- description: Find out why "Knife" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. title: 'Knife' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac31ef4abbe5d2d/698a8d04457a523326d6fc56/Knife-Salman-Rushdie.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # Knife by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/) ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer  On Aug. 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was promoting his 21st book, _Victory City,_ in Chautauqua, N.Y., when a man rushed the stage and stabbed him. Prosecutors say the attacker was attempting to carry out a 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for the death of the _Satanic Verses_ author. Once Rushdie regained consciousness, he went into journalist mode, recording his memories of the assault and recovery process. The result is the memoir _Knife_. Readers don’t need to be up-to-date on Rushdie’s oeuvre in order to understand his story; he references quotes and plotlines in his past novels that he thinks foreshadowed the attack. Through his writing, he works to make sense of the violence he endured as he attempts to heal. **Buy Now:** _Knife_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593730249 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/40CDi7d "undefined") | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/40CEnM9 "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172906/knife/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172906/knife/"},"headline":"Knife","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:03:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:42:20.345Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172906/knife/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac31ef4abbe5d2d/698a8d04457a523326d6fc56/Knife-Salman-Rushdie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"creator":"Olivia B. Waxman","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac31ef4abbe5d2d/698a8d04457a523326d6fc56/Knife-Salman-Rushdie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172906/knife/","name":"Knife"}}]}] ```