*Top,* Gay Talese and Salman Rushdie; *above,* Kaitlan Collins and Tony Danza.

*Top,* Graydon and Anna Carter; *above,* Marlon James.

*Top,* Jordan Roth, Richie Jackson, and Salman Rushdie; *above,* Andrew Wylie.

*Top,* Honor Cargill-Martin, Harry Lambert, and Alessandra Stanley; *above,* Lucian St Aubyn.

*Top,* Gwenda-lin Grewal and Walton Ford; *above,* Bruce Wagner and Salman Rushdie.

*Top,* Lisa Taddeo and Tony Danza; *above,* Rupert Friend.

*Top,* George Hahn, Richie Jackson, Andrew Zucker, and Molly Jong-Fast; *above,* Bill Buford.

*Top,* Sam Kashner and Michael Hainey; *above,* Sloane Crosley and Reggie Nadelson.

*Top,* James Fenton and Reggie Nadelson; *above,* Kim Heirston and Richie Jackson.

*Top,* Ash Carter and Basil Walter; *above,* Karah Preiss.

*Top,* Antonia Hitchens and Joan Juliet Buck; *above,* Laurie Anderson.

*Top,* Dana Brown, Josh Duboff, and Anna Carter; *above,* Salman Rushdie.

A Night to Remember with Salman Rushdie

Gay Talese, Lisa Taddeo, Marlon James, Tony Danza, and others gathered at the Waverly Inn for a rousing book party in celebration of the writer’s new memoir

By Jensen Davis

Photographs by Daniel Paik

“This must be what climbing Mount Everest feels like!” said one party guest trying to reach the bar at AIR MAIL’s book party for Salman Rushdie, in honor of his new memoir, Knife, publishing next week. On Thursday evening, Manhattan’s Waverly Inn was packed with friends and fans of Rushdie’s, from actors Tony Danza and Rupert Friend to fellow novelists Lisa Taddeo, Marlon James, Sloane Crosley, Gary Shteyngart, and Bruce Wagner.

Considering the subject of Rushdie’s new book—his recovery after being violently stabbed at an event in August 2022, nearly 25 years after Iran’s fatwa against him had been temporarily lifted—security guards were present. (Not imposing, Jason Statham–looking men, but rather a discreet security team brought in for the night, whose members looked more like jacked party guests than they did former N.Y.P.D. counterterrorism cops.)