Salman Rushdie "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said. Since 2000, Rushdie has "lived mostly near Union Square" in New York City. He is a fan of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur. Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, "Midnight's Children" (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two separate occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th
Salman Rushdie controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries. Death threats were made against him, including a "fatwā" calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989. The British government put Rushdie under police protection. In 1983 Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the UK's senior literary organisation. He was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999. In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to literature. In 2008, "The Times" ranked him thirteenth on its list