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Rushdie's paperback Satanic storm

Author Salman Rushdie's British publisher is bringing out a paperback edition of the Satanic Verses, his supporters acknowledged today, after trying to hush up the controversial move.

The new edition, carrying the imprint of Vintage, a division of Random House, will be the first paperback by a mainstream British publisher of the novel, which brought Rushdie an Iranian death sentence on February 14, 1989.

The book, first published in hardback in 1988, caused an uproar among Muslims around the world, who contended it insulted Islam.

The India-born Rushdie, a naturalised Briton, has lived largely in seclusion and under British police guard since Iran's Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini proclaimed the fatwa, offering a bounty of $ 2 million.

Random House, which is trying to avoid publicity because of the sensitivity of the issue, refused to comment about any paperback plans.

But a member of the Salman Rushdie Defence Committee, a London-based support group, confirmed that a British paperback was quietly in the works.

It is in the pipeline, but it is not coming through for about three weeks, committee member Frances DeSouza said.

A group of anonymous publishers, calling themselves Consortium, brought out a paperback edition in 1994 after Viking-Penguin, which originally published the book, cancelled soft-cover plans, following bomb attacks on the company's shops and premises in several countries.

London's Daily Telegraph reported today that stocks of the Consortium edition have almost run out and that Rushdie thinks it is time for a definitive British paperback carrying the Vintage imprint.

Despite years of negotiations by Britain and the 15-nation European Union, Iran refuses to rescind the death sentence.

In February, a state-run Iranian foundation said it might increase the bounty, now at $ 2.5 million. Last year, the 15th Khordad Foundation had upped the bounty from $ 2 million.

UNI

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