Some would say about time, others better late than never. On Sunday October 22 in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, Salman Rushdie was rewarded for a profound and courageous literary life – rather, LIFE without need of a conditional. And awarded with the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels. And, he was there – so very ALIVE with sparkling intelligence and infectious good humor (granted, das große deutsche Publikum in the pews didn’t always get it! but what the … I did!). And, with humanity, and a gift for finding the right words to articulate the misplacement and perversion of humanity and how it may be retrieved in a fractious world. Only weeks after the terror attack against Israel and the repercussions in Gaza, such a clear voice is most sorely needed
Here now is Rushdie’s marvelous acceptance, audio is available elsewhere on the site, and embedded below in PDF format all the speeches, including the laudatio by Daniel Kehlmann.