Oscar nominee Hanif Kureishi says Salman Rushdie writes him every day after near-fatal fall
Oscar-nominated British screenwriter Hanif Kureishi revealed that his famous fellow author Salman Rushdie has written to him daily since Kureishi’s near-fatal fall in Rome last month.
The 68-year-old writer of “My Beautiful Laundrette” said in a Twitter post last week that he took a dangerous tumble after feeling dizzy following a walk through the Italian capital — and woke up in a “pool of blood” with his neck in “a grotesquely twisted position.”
“I believed I was dying,” he wrote. “I believed I had three breathes left.”
Kureishi has been sharing updates on his condition from his hospital bed, telling his followers that he fears he may never be able to hold a pen again after undergoing surgery on his spine.
On Monday, “The Buddha of Suburbia” author shared with his fans that he had been getting uplifting messages from Rushdie, who in August was stabbed 10 times while preparing to give a lecture in western New York.
“My friend Salman Rushdie, one of the bravest men I know, a man who has stood up to the most evil form of Islamofascism, writes to me every single day, encouraging patience,” Kureishi tweeted. “He should know. He gives me courage.”
The 75-year-old “Satanic Verses” writer, who spent years in hiding after being accused of mocking Islam and facing death threats from Iran, lost sight in one eye and suffered nerve damage in his hand.
Rushdie’s suspected attacker, Lebanese American Hadi Matar, 25, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post after his arrest, Mata, from Fairview, New Jersey, said he was “surprised” that Rushdie survived the knife attack.
Rushdie’s 13th novel, “Victory Day,” is coming out next month, and his friends recently said he was in good spirits, with his sense of humor still “intact.”
Kureishi has been writing candidly on Twitter about his physical and mental state, saying that he suffers from “paralysis” and self-deprecatingly describing himself as a “vegetable” and a “cripple.”
In a post Tuesday, however, the 1986 Academy Award nominee confided in his followers that he was feeling hopeful after being raised from his bed and allowed a chance to see “the Italian sky through the window, some trees and a cloud and few birds.”
Kureishi wrote: “For the first time I believed that things might begin to improve. My heart is like a singing bird … I began to feel that I had a whole body and not just a patchwork of random pieces thrown together as if by Mary Shelley’s imagination.”
Kureishi is best known for a film adaption of his “Laundrette” novel, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, which received a BAFTA and an Oscar nod more than three decades ago.
His 1990 bestseller “The Buddha of Suburbia” was turned into a TV series starring David Bowie in 1993.
