"We can react to old age in two ways: with anger or with serenity."

BarcelonaOn August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie (Bombay, 1947) nearly died from the numerous stab wounds inflicted on his face, torso, and limbs by the young Hadi Matar. The author explained the attack, which left him blind in one eye and unable to use his left hand, in Knife (Penguin Random House, 2025), a "horror and survival story" that spurred the novelist to return to his preferred world, that of fiction. The result, The penultimate hour (Penguin, 2026), has just arrived in bookstores with the great anticipation that each new release from the writer provokes..

"I hadn't published any stories for more than three decades," he said Thursday from his home in New York. "Most of them are inspired by death for two reasons: firstly, because I've seen it very closely, but also because I'll be 79 in June." Late, the first of the narratives he wrote of The penultimate hour, It stars the ghost of an old professor and writer inspired by E.M. Forster (Marylebone, 1879 – Coventry, 1970), whom Rushdie met while studying at King's College, Cambridge. "When he learned I came from India, he became very interested in me, because it was a country he had known and loved," he explains. Forster was nearing 90 and died soon after. The young Rushdie had just discovered his literary vocation and was working on what would become his first novel. Primus (1975). With the second, Midnight's Children (1981), sold over a million copies in the UK alone and won the Booker Prize. It was the first success of a career marked by literary achievements and by the fatwa issued against him by Ayatollah Khomeini following the "blasphemous content" ofThe Satanic Verses (1988), whose main character was the prophet Muhammad. "Don't ask me how I see the future," he says now. "I'm a terrible prophet, and at other times in my life I've suffered for having been inspired by prophets. I can tell you that we live in dark times, and that the division that currently exists in the United States, where I've lived for a quarter of a century, is alarming."

Praise art, criticize millionaires

The five stories of The penultimate hour They have very different settings and themes. In OklahomaA Kafkaesque narrator pursues the shadow of his missing uncle. In the southTwo men reflect on the pleasures and reproaches they have accumulated during their long friendship. The longest of the set, The interpreter of KahaniThe book tells the story of a young singer's journey in contemporary India. "I wanted to talk about the power of art and music to change the world, but to do so from a satirical perspective: billionaires are ridiculous," she explains. Except for the young Chandni, who stars in this story, most of the characters in the book are elderly. "It's my stage of life, I can't do anything," she says with a shy smile. "We can react to old age in two ways: with anger or with serenity. I wanted both paths to be very present in the book." The penultimate hour"

Rushdie is aware that Beethoven "couldn't stand getting old," but he also remembers that "his last symphony, the ninth, is an ode to happiness."Dylan Thomas He has that poem that ends like this: “Rebel, yes, rebel against the death of light” – he continues –. In one part ofOklahoma black squares appear that Francisco de Goya He painted towards the end of his life. I like them because he worked at a time when, after the changes at court and the beginning of a more totalitarian world, Goya began to express himself differently. I see parallels between that reality of the first third of the 19th century and our present moment." Unlike artists such as Philip Roth and Julian BarnesSalman Rushdie has no intention of throwing in the towel and wants to tackle a new novel. "Writing is my way of being in this world," he acknowledges. "If I hadn't dedicated myself to literature, I would have ended up as a second-rate actor. I'd say I made the right decision."