California Literary Review

My repudiation was a sham: SALMAN Rushdie has confessed that he pretended to “embrace Islam” in the hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him. The author issued a statement in 1990 to defuse the row about his novel The Satanic Verses, which had provoked Muslims across the world. He claimed he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. However, in an interview to be broadcast next month, Rushdie claims his reversion to the religion of his birth was all a “pretence”. [Australian]

Heart transplant man dies like suicide donor: A heart transplant recipient who married the former wife of the heart donor, has committed suicide in the same way as the donor did. According to scientists, there are more than 70 documented cases of transplant patients taking on some of the personality traits of the organ donors. [Telegraph]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russia’s loudest recluse: Typically, it was Natalia Solzhenitsyn who has given the latest insight into her husband, Aleksandr. At 89, he is working frantically to complete the 30 volumes of his collected works, she says. He is frail, can barely walk and hasn’t left his Moscow house for five years, but he continues to write, determined to continue to disseminate his views on repression in the Soviet Union. [Times]

Inside the revolution: Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is Iran’s premier female film director. For 20 years she has quietly challenged the status quo in her homeland. [New Statesman]