The German Booksellers’ Peace Prize 2023 was awarded on Monday to the American-British author Salman Rushdie.
The writer, who narrowly survived a knife attack in New York last summer, will receive his prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair, to be held in October this year.
The Peace Prize is awarded each year to personalities whose work promotes pacifist values. The German Booksellers’ Association, which awards the prize, honoured Mr Rushdie for “enriching the world with his pleasure in storytelling.”
According to the association, the author describes in his novels “the force with which violent regimes destroy whole societies, but also the indestructibility of the individual’s spirit of resistance.”
“I can only thank the jury for their generosity,” said the author. “I know how significant this prize is and I’m a little overawed by the list of previous recipients, to whom my name will now add. I’m truly delighted.”
The award, to be presented on the closing day of the Frankfurt Book Fair, comes with a cash prize of €25,000. Previous winners include not only writers, but also philosophers and scientists, such as Hermann Hesse, Mario Vargas Llosa and Orhan Pamuk.
Last year, it was Ukrainian author Serhiy Jadan who received the award.
In 1989, Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie for his novel ‘The Satanic Verses,’ considered blasphemous by some radical Muslims.
Last year, Rushdie was the victim of a knife attack during a conference in New York. Since then, he has been blind in one eye, is unable to use either of his hands and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
