Salman Rushdie not sure he can be ‘bothered’ to face stabber

Salman Rushdie says his next book will be about his terrifying onstage stabbing — but he’s not sure if he can “be bothered” to face his accused would-be assassin in court.

The 76-year-old author told the BBC Wednesday he’s stunned that Islamic fanatic Hadi Matar, 25, has pleaded not guilty to assault and attempted murder for the attack at a literary event in upstate New York last August.

“That’s just silly because a couple of thousand people saw him do it,” Rushdie said with a chuckle.

The long-condemned “Satanic Verses” novelist — who was blinded in his right eye in the attack — said he had been “led to believe” that it was “just a holding plea and that actually he might well change his plea.”

“And if I was his lawyer, I would advise him to do so,” Rushdie said of the accused, who admitted to The Post that he “was surprised” that the author had survived.

“If he changes his plea to guilty then actually there’s not a trial, there’s just a sentencing, and it may well be that then my presence isn’t required,” he said.

The Indian-born novelist said the attack has left him with “crazy dreams” — but he’s still unsure if he wants to be in the same room again with the accused assailant.

“I’m in two minds about it,” he said of the trial, which could potentially start in the fall.

“There’s one bit of me that actually wants to go and stand on the court and look at him — and there’s another bit of me that just can’t be bothered.

“As you can well understand, I don’t have a very high opinion of him. And I think what is important to me now is that here I am with my life continuing.

“I’m more engaged with the business of that — of getting on with it,” he said.

That starts with him writing about the ordeal, he said.

“To use the cliché, there’s this colossal elephant in the room and, until I deal with that, it is difficult to take seriously anything else,” he said, adding he realized his initial attempt to tackle another project was just “silly.”

“And so I thought, ‘OK — I better deal with it.’”

Still, he seemed somewhat dismissive of that, too, saying “it’s not going to be a long book — a couple of hundred pages, maybe,” a far cry from the 656-page biography “Joseph Anton” about his life after the 1989 fatwa ordered by Iran’s then-leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

That largely explains his relaxed attitude despite living under renewed security following the onstage attack last year.

“Everybody’s nervous — more nervous than me. I’ve had 33 years of it,” he said, adding his new state-provided protection is “like the good old days.”