On 14 February 1989, Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been ‘sentenced to death’ by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being ‘against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran’.
 
So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of an armed police protection team. He was asked to choose an alias that the police could call him by. He thought of writers he loved and combinations of their names; then it came to him: Conrad and Chekhov – Joseph Anton.
 
Joseph Anton is a book of exceptional frankness and honesty, it's compelling, provocative, moving, and of vital importance. What happened to Salman Rushdie was the first act of a drama that is still unfolding somewhere in the world every day.
 
For more about the book click here or visit www.salman-rushdie.com