From the masterly pen of the acclaimed author of Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses comes a luminous epic that spans a quarter of a millennium and begins in fourteenth-century India where a girl is tasked by a goddess with giving women agency in a patriarchal world.
'She will breathe a new empire into life – but all worlds can escape their creator…'
In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga, ‘victory city’.
Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s as she attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781529920864
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 260 g
Dimensions: 194 x 128 x 30 mm
In its haunting, uncanny, predictive power Victory City shows once again why his work will always matter. - New York Times
A novel by a man who still, in his eighth decade, derives delight in his talent and all that he can do with it. The book is a total pleasure to read, a bright burst of colour in a grey winter season. - Sunday Times
A joyfully extravagant alternative Mahabharata... a mashup of myth and fairytale, comedy and melodrama, celebrating women's agency and the enduring power of storytelling. - Guardian, Summer Reads of 2023*
Victory City is full of life and colour, and some of Rushdie's key themes: female strength, the importance of storytelling, the danger of censorship. - Sunday Times, Summer Reads of 2023*
What of Rushdie's powers? We cannot know if they are god-given, but on the evidence of this profoundly entertaining tale... Rushdie certainly still has the gift of alchemy. - Financial Times
A playful, magical realist epic, full of adventure and comically clashing registers, and a celebration of the power of storytelling and the endurance of literature. - Guardian
Rushdie’s sheer love of fiction is irrepressible. - Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year*
One of the richest and most exuberant books Salman Rushdie has written in years... remarkable. - Scotsman, Summer Reads of 2023*
Rushdie's relentless creative energy pairs well with his understanding of how history works... It's as if Rushdie has dropped a molecule of divinity into a petri dish containing the other basic stuff of life, and watched a civilization cultivate. - TIME
Rushdie's lavish, playful 15th novel plants him firmly back on Indian soil, cooking up an alternative Mahabharata and spinning an elaborate founding myth from the bare bones of history. He's enjoying the enterprise and his sense of fun is infectious. - Guardian
It's difficult to read this latest novel by Salman Rushdie without being reminded of the barbaric attack the author suffered last year. However, Rushdie himself has always preferred to shift attention onto his... More
Thank you Penguin for the proof! 3.5 rounded up :)
Only after finishing this book have I found out that it was based on a real life empire in India. If I had known that going into it, I may have gotten more out of...
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I struggled to start this book and found that the similarities between names (especially later in the book) made it hard to remember who was who. It was difficult to feel empathy or understanding for any of the... More
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