Writer Salman Rushdie has received a prestigious German award for his literary work and for his determination and positive attitude in the face of constant danger, organizers announced on Monday.
The Anglo-American author will receive the German Booksellers’ Peace Prize in Frankfurt on October 22.
Rushdie’s writing “combines narrative vision with constant literary innovation, humor and wisdom,” the jury said.
“It describes the force with which violent regimes destroy entire societies, but also the indestructibility of the individual’s spirit of resistance,” he added.
Last August, Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times while performing at a literary festival in New York State.
The German jury pointed out that he persisted in writing, despite the physical and psychological consequences he faced.
The author is therefore honored for “his determination, his positive attitude towards life and for the fact that he enriches the world with his pleasure in storytelling”, underlines the jury.
Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemned as blasphemous passages referring to the Prophet Muhammad in Rushdie’s 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, forcing the author into hiding. He was, however, traveling freely, until the attack last summer.
The German prize, with a scholarship of 25,000 euros (approximately C$36,000), has been awarded since 1950.
