Today, prize-winning author Salman Rushdie enjoys a life in the public eye and a literary career rife with accolades, using his work to examine the cultural connection - and disconnection - between East and West and the history and experiences of Asian diaspora, all through the lens of magical realism.
Circumstances have not always been that way.
When Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, he was thrown into a decade-long ordeal of secrecy and hiding. His work erroneously perceived as anti-Islam, a fatw? issued for his death, he adopted the English-sounding pseudonym Joseph Anton - cobbled together from the names of authors Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov, a hat-tip to the bleakness of his situation - and lived under strict security, with persistent anxiety. His new memoir, Joseph Anton, chronicles and puts into context this turbulent period of his life.
Rushdie discussed this memoir and its events when he joined Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott to open the 2012-2013 Writers on a New England Stage series, on Wednesday, October 10th, at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH.
[Note: This program aired on Monday, October 22nd at noon.]
