Rushdie felt that his miraculous survival was a second chance at life. Thinking of a Raymond Carver poem in which Carver called this kind of second chance “gravy,” Rushdie resolved to think of his remaining time as a kind of bonus, living each day as it came without too much thought about the future. He was delighted when Victory City was published and critics engaged with it seriously, seemingly not motivated by sympathy for what he had just been through. He was gratified by the support he got from fellow authors, who stepped in to do publicity events when he was still too weak to attend them himself. He was pleased to be writing again and thinking about future novels to work on once he completed Knife.

Despite all these positive developments, however, Rushdie and Eliza still experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rushdie attended therapy and worked on more openly expressing his feelings about the trauma, while Eliza decided that she needed some time away and went to the Caribbean. Afterward, they both decided to go to London to visit his family. He contacted Scotland Yard, which had managed his security while he was in hiding in the wake of Khomeini’s death edict against him.