On February 14, 1989, Valentines Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been 'sentenced to death' by the Ayatollah Khomenini, a voice reaching across the world from Iran to kill him in his own country. For the first time he heard the word "fatwa". His crime?: To have written a novel called 'The Satanic Verses", which was accused of being 'against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran.
So begins the extraordinary, often harrowing story- filled to with surreal and funny moments- of how a writer was forced underground, moved from house to house, an armed police team protection team living with him at all times for more than nine years. He was asked to choose an alias that the police could call him by. He thought of writers he loved and combinations of their names, then it came to him: Conrad and Chekov- Joseph Anton. He became "Joe".
This is a great read, very honest. We read of two divorces, several break ups, births and raising of children on top of the constant pressure of living in secret.
Although the British Government supplied protection they were not always supportive. In fact they were incredibly weak when it came to condemning Iran. There were airlines who would not fly him and then there were writers who blamed him for his situation, particularly John Le Carre, very particularly John Le Carre. There were MP's who were happy to see him dead because of there cuddling up to adherents of a stone age religion.
There were many writers who supported him 100 %, supplying him with houses, publicly speaking out on his behalf, Harold Pinter and wife and Bill Buford are the stand outs
A fascinating read, much too much to explain in this little bit
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