Salman Rushdie has a memoir coming out about the horrifying attack that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand. ‘Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder’ will be published April 16. “This was a necessary book for me to write: a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art,” Rushdie said in a statement released Wednesday by Penguin Random House.

Last August, Salman Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and abdomen by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in New York. The attacker, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to assault and attempted murder charges.