PVLF 2025

Salman Rushdie to Release The Eleventh Hour in November 2025

Salman Rushdie's The Eleventh Hour, a short story collection exploring themes of life, loss, and resilience, releases on November 4, 2025.
on Mar 28, 2025

"The Eleventh Hour" is a short story collection exploring themes and locations of interest to Rushdie, who came close to death in the 2022 attack. It will be published on November 4, 2025.

British-American author Salman Rushdie will release his first major book of fiction since the vicious stabbing that left him blind in one eye, his publisher announced on Thursday.

"The Eleventh Hour" is a book of short stories exploring themes and sites of concern to Rushdie, who was saved from dying in the 2022 attack. It will come out on Nov. 4, 2025.

The would-be killer, Hadi Matar, was found guilty of attempted murder in a trial in upstate New York at which Rushdie provided detailed testimony regarding the attack.

"The three novellas in this volume, all written in the last year, deal with places and themes very much on my mind -- death, Bombay, goodbyes, England (particularly Cambridge), rage, peace, America," he explained in a statement issued by Penguin Publishing.

"I'm pleased that the tales, quite disparate from each other in setting, narrative, and style, yet still find themselves in dialogue with each other, and with the two tales which act as prologue and epilogue to this trinity."

At the trial of Rushdie's assailant, Matar's lawyers aimed to keep witnesses from describing Rushdie as the victim of persecution after Iran's 1989 fatwa declaring him should be killed for alleged blasphemy in "The Satanic Verses."

Rushdie described to jurors how Matar "stabbed and slashed" him at a function in an exclusive cultural center in rural New York.

Salman Rushdie to Release 1st Novel Since Sordid Stabbing in 2022

"The Eleventh Hour" is a book of short stories exploring ideas and locales dear to Rushdie, who averted death at the hands of the 2022 assailant. It drops November 4, 2025.

Salman Rushdie To Release 1st Fiction Book Since Violent Stabbing In 2022

"The Eleventh Hour" is a short story anthology exploring themes. New York:

British-American writer Salman Rushdie will release his first significant work of fiction since the violent stabbing that left him blind in one eye, his publisher announced Thursday.

"The Eleventh Hour" is a series of short stories exploring themes and locales of concern to Rushdie, who narrowly avoided death in the 2022 attack. It will appear on November 4, 2025.

Would-be killer Hadi Matar was convicted of attempted murder in a trial in upstate New York during which Rushdie testified vividly about the attack.

"The three novellas in this book, all composed in the past year, are concerned with themes and locations that have been preoccupying me -- death, Bombay, goodbyes, England (particularly Cambridge), rage, tranquility, America," he stated in a declaration issued by Penguin Publishing.

"I am pleased that the stories, so unlike each other in setting, story, and style, yet somehow remain in dialogue with each other, and with the two stories that bookend this trio."

Rushdie's lawyers during the attack trial of his assailant pressed witnesses not to describe Rushdie as a persecution victim after a 1989 fatwa against him by Iran for murder, allegedly for alleged blasphemy over "The Satanic Verses."

Rushdie described the jurors stabbing and slashing Matar at an event at the high-end Chautauqua Institution in Upstate New York.

Matar was convicted of knifing Rushdie around 10 times with a six-inch knife that was presented to witnesses and the court.

During the trial, Rushdie spoke of his novel "The Knife" that he authored after the attack, detailing the brutal attempt on his life and his recovery from a range of injuries.

The defendant yelled pro-Palestinian slogans on multiple occasions throughout the trial.

Matar, of New Jersey, earlier reported to media that he had only read two pages of "The Satanic Verses" but thought the writer had "attacked Islam."

Since the publication of the novel in 1988, Rushdie has been at the center of a bitter struggle between free speech extremists and those who maintained that ridicule of religion, especially Islam, was not acceptable under any situation.

Born in Mumbai but raised in England as a child, Rushdie came into prominence with his second book "Midnight's Children" (1981), which received Britain's renowned Booker Prize for its depiction of post-independence India.

But "The Satanic Verses" brought him much, largely unwanted, more attention.

For the Latest News, Visit: Frontlist