Hanif Kureishi says Salman Rushdie has written to him every day since horrific fall

Author said this week that he’d begun to believe ‘things might improve’ for first time since accident

Kureishi in 2021 (Getty Images)

Hanif Kureishi says fellow writer Salman Rushdie has written to him every day as he continues to recover from a fall that left him unable to move his arms or legs.

Last week, The Buddha of Suburbia author shared a message on Twitter explaining that he had suffered the fall while visiting Rome on 26 December.

Writing from his hospital bed in the Italian capital, Kureishi, 68, said that he had been on a walk with his wife when he began to feel dizzy, and lent forwards to put his head between his legs. He then “woke up a few minutes later in a pool of blood, my neck in a grotesquely twisted position”.

The British playwright, novelist and filmmaker has been posting updates from his hospital bed since the accident, explaining that his motion has remained limited and he fears he may never be able to hold a pen to write again.

On Monday (9 January), Kureishi tweeted that he had been contacted by author Rushdie, who in August was stabbed while preparing to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in the state of New York.

Rushdie lost his sight in one eye and the use of his hand in the violent attack, his agent confirmed in October.

“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,” he tweeted.

“He should know. He gives me courage.”

Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s. His attacker, 25-year-old Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges following the incident.

On Tuesday (10 January), Kureishi shared another update in which he referred to himself as a “vegetable”, but said his personal outlook on the situation was improving.

“This morning three very beautiful Italian physiotherapists came to my room,” he wrote. “They wore clean white uniforms with orange trim. They put me in what looked like a blue plastic bathing machine.

“Then they hoisted me up and thrust me into a wheelchair. I was turned around and for the first time I was able to see the other side of my room. I saw the Italian sky through the window, some trees and a cloud and few birds.”

Kureishi continued: “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.”