Salman Rushdie, the acclaimed author who was stabbed repeatedly at a public appearance in New York state on Friday, 33 years after Iran's then-supreme leader called for him to be killed, is off a ventilator and his health is improving, his agent said on Sunday.
"He's off the ventilator, so the road to recovery has begun," his agent, Andrew Wylie, wrote in an email. "It will be long; the injuries are severe, but his condition is headed in the right direction."
Rushdie, 75, was set to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York on the importance of the United States as a haven for targeted artists when police say a 24-year-old man rushed the stage and stabbed him.