Translator Bernhard Robben, author Daniel Kehlmann and actress Cynthia Micas (from left) in conversation with Salman Rushdie (video) Photo: photo alliance/dpa
By Sébastien Bauer
The world-famous author (“Midnight’s Children”) made one of his first appearances after the assassination attempt via video and presented his novel “The City of Victory” at the Berlin International Literature Festival .
Apart from the blindness in one eye, “I’m doing pretty well,” says Salman Rushdie (76), cheerfully, after a brief sound outage in the Berliner Ensemble was resolved.
At his age, his body is no longer in great shape, “but otherwise I feel good,” says the writer (“Midnight Children,” “The Satanic Verses”).
Rushdie’s appearance at the International Literature Festival on Sunday afternoon was one of his first public appearances since the knife attack on him last year.
The author was connected by video and his writer friend Daniel Kehlmann (48, Tyll), translator Bernhard Robben (67) and actress Cynthia Micas (33), who read Rushdie’s new novel “Victory City”, spoke on site.
During a lively conversation, the Indian-British writer discussed, among other things, his lifelong love of Batman and the similarities between the comics and Bollywood films of his native country. Rushdie: “All this goes into my books. »
After three novels about the United States, the author felt that “Victory City” was set in India: “I was tired of America and wanted to go home. »
