Victory City by Salman Rushdie

Sir Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British-American novelist, is one of the best-known contemporary novelists in the English language. Today we are going to introduce his novel, Victory City, published in 2023. He is the author of seventeen novels, a book of stories and four works of non-fiction. The list of his achievements and awards could fill pages.  His novel ‘Midnight’s Children’ (1981) was named ‘Best of Booker’ – the best winner in the award’s 40-year history – by a public vote. In 2007 he was Knighted in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours.  Wikipedia says that: « His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilisations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. »

The publisher’s description of Victory City reads as follows:
« In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, nine-year-old Pampa Kampana has a divine encounter that will change the course of history: She becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will help create a city balled Bisnaga – ‘victory city’- the wonder of the world……. (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….. Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, this is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is, in itself, a testament to the power of storytelling. »

Music played
• Classical Indian Music from the YouTube Traditional Music Channel
• Sacred Raga with Ustad Shahid Parvez on the sitar.

Here are this month’s book recommendations from Reading Circle members

• The Extinction of Irina Rey by Jennifer Croft – a beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a primeval Polish forest.
• Fabian by Erich Kästner – First published in 1931, an unparalleled personalisation of the collapse of the Weimar Republic. In German, but also available in English translation.
• Yellowface by Rebecca F. Huang – an intriguing novel about literary theft and its consequences.
• The Lives of Lee Miller by Anthony Penrose – A biography of his mother who started her working life as a model, then became a fashion photographer and friend of the Surrealists in Paris, then a distinguished war correspondent in World War 2. She later reinvented herself as a passionate and accomplished cook.