One of the most celebrated writers of our time, Salman Rushdie, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, became the target of a fatwa, issued by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran in response to the publication of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's many books include Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize in 1981 and, in 2008, the Best of the Booker). For several years, the author was forced into hiding. His memoir Joseph Anton is a reflection on that period.