Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ is topping the charts on Amazon’s best-seller lists days after an Islamist stabbed him during an event in New York.
Among Amazon’s contemporary literary and fiction chart, the book has leapfrogged to the top position while it is second on the censorship and politics category, and was 18th bestselling book overall on the e-commerce site on Monday.
Besides, the Kindle version of the book is also witnessing strong sales, reaching numero uno position in many categories, including fiction, satire, censorship, and politics.
It was 23rd on Amazon’s chart of Kindle bestsellers.
The author’s other works have also becoming popular, with Midnight’s Children reaching 10th on the contemporary literature and fiction list.
In addition to this, versions of his 2012 memoir Joseph Anton that chronicles his decade of life under police protection, occupied the four top spots on the religious intelligence and persecution list.
On August 12, an assailant named Hadi Matar attacked ‘The Satanic Verses’ author when he was about to give a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in New York. As per eyewitnesses, the attacker stormed the stage and begin punching and stabbing Rushdie when he was being introduced. The author fell down on the floor after being attacked by the assailant.
Rushdie came into the limelight after his book “The Satanic Verses” was banned in 1988 by a host of countries, including India which was then governed by Rajiv Gandhi, over content that Muslims considered “blasphemous”. A year later, Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death.
A bounty of $3 million was offered to anyone who kills Rushdie after Islamists around the world targeted him for his book “The Satanic Verses”, which they said was blasphemous against Islam.