The prestigious newspaper of American cultural elites has posted on its site an extract entitled "A Sackful of Seeds" from the 15th novel by Salman Rushie, "Victory City", to be published at the beginning of February next by the publisher Penguin Random House.

The book tells the "epic tale of a woman" in the 14th century in what is now part of India, according to the publisher.

The New Yorker indicated that this first excerpt would be published in the magazine dated December 12 and released on newsstands this Monday.

Salman Rushdie himself, on his certified Twitter account, confirmed on Monday the publication by the prestigious American magazine of the extract from "Victory City".

This is the first time since August 9 that Mr. Rushdie has spoken on Twitter.

He had done it four months ago to announce the release of his novel in February 2023.

Three days later, on August 12, at a conference in Chautauqua, in upstate New York near Great Lake Erie, the world-famous author of "Satanic Verses" was seriously injured in a knife attack perpetrated by a young man who threw himself on him as he was about to speak.

The 75-year-old Indian-born British writer was immediately hospitalized, operated on and treated in the United States, but lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand, his agent Andrew Wylie announced in October. .

The main suspect, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old American of Lebanese descent, was arrested immediately after the incident and pleaded not guilty during preliminary hearings for his trial in August in a court in Mayville, in the northwest of the country. New York State.

The attack shocked the West but was hailed by extremists in Muslim countries such as Iran and Pakistan.

The writer, naturalized American and who has lived in New York for 20 years, has been prosecuted since 1989 by a fatwa from the Iranian Supreme Guide condemning him to death.

Iran had officially denied any role in the attack, a spokesman for power in Tehran assuring that "only Salman Rushdie and his supporters deserve to be blamed and even condemned".

© 2022 AFP