Knife by Salman Rushdie is a long-awaited, unsparing memoir that recounts the brutal attack Rushdie suffered in August 2022 that nearly killed him. Rushdie describes the event and its immediate aftermath as displaying both “the worst and best of human nature”. His assailant stabbed him in the midst of a conference in which he was speaking, with cruel irony, about the importance of keeping writers safe. But it was also the other members of the audience who rushed into action in the moment that saved him. Now, having lost the use of an eye and a hand but having survived, Rushdie offers his perspective on endurance, censorship, gratitude, and the ability of art to counter hate.