Writer says book should be pulped

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 10

Writer says book should be pulped

NZPA-AAP London One of Penguin Books’ best selling authors, Roald Dahl, says “The Satanic Verses” should be withdrawn from sale and all copies pulped to save lives. Mr Dahl, who was given police protection four years ago after receiving death threats from Jewish factions, said no rational behaviour could be asked of fanatics. He had criticised Israel’s 1982 bombing raids over Beirut. “If the lives of the author and the senior editor in New York are at stake, then it would be better to give in on a moral question when you are dealing with fanatics,” he tojd “The Times.” “If I were Salman Rushdie then for the sake of everybody threatened I

would agree to throw the bloody thing away. It would save lives.” On Tuesday the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeiny, announced death sentences for Mr Rushdie and all those associated with the publication of his book because it offended the Islamic faith. Penguin-owned Viking Books published “The Satanic Verses” in Britain. The trade magazine, “The Bookseller” reported that the novel is the bestselling hardback fiction for the fourth consecutive week in the United Kingdom with estimated weekly sales of 2000. . The book won the novel section of Britain’s respected Whitbread Prize in November, 1988. It was also runner-up to “Oscar and Lucinda” by the Aus-

tralian, Peter Carey, in last October’s Booker Prize awards.

Meanwhile, Mr Rushdie’s second wife, the American novelist, Marianne Wiggins, returned to their north London home under police guard yesterday to collect some belongings. Mr Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim Indian family and is now a British citizen, has not been seen in public since the Ayatollah’s death threats, although he has commented through his agents and publishers. His close friend, Tariq Ali, told journalists he was 90 per cent certain a murder attempt would be made and believed the only solution was for Mr Rushdie to vanish and start life again with a new identity. '