Victory City

A Novel

By: Salman Rushdie

Narrated by: Sid Sagar

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries—from the transcendent imagination of Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie is one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year • “Victory City is a triumph—not because it exists, but because it is utterly enchanting.”—The Atlantic

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Chicago Public Library, Polygon, The Globe and Mail, Bookreporter

In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana 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 be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world.

Over the next 250 years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing from a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana 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. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry—with Pampa Kampana at its center.

Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, Victory City is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is in itself a testament to the power of storytelling.

©2023 Salman Rushdie (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“An astounding work of historical fiction and magical realism . . . With wonder and humor, Rushdie spins a decades-long tale about power, philosophy, justice, and exile that boldly confronts the issues modern societies still face.”—TIME Magazine

“[Victory City] feels like a triumphant scream against censorship as well as a celebration of language, storytelling, and otherness. . . . Literature can offer guides to a better future, even when it’s fiction about the past, and Victory City is precisely that.”—Boston Globe

“Rushdie’s return to magic, myth, and India’s ancient stories is dazzling . . . Whether it’s an allegory for present-day India or a feminist retelling of a pre-colonial empire (or both!), Victory City nevertheless celebrates a singular story of female resilience.”—Esquire

A masterpiece

What a delight, in this fraught moment, to be given a magical new novel by Salman Rushdie. Though “Victory City” was completed before the knife attack at Chautauqua , it’s impossible not to read parts of this grand fantasy as an allegory of the author’s struggles against sectarian hatred and ignorance. Indeed, given the physical and emotional sacrifices he’s made, some coincidences between this story and his own life are almost too poignant to bear.

Not my favorite Salman Rushdie’s book

Extremely circonlocutions story. The characters are not likable and the events run in a very speedy way. The narrator is absolutely excellent.

I love this book!

I was entranced from the beginning, pages to the end… A wonderful book for reading, or listening.

Riveting!

Enthralling, adventurous and consuming from beginning to end! A definite recommendation to any reader of quality literature.

Imaginative Rushdie novel brilliantly performed

Salman Rushdie is known for his inventive storytelling and Delhi-born narrator Sid Sagar doubles the impact with his marvelous performance. The complex and tongue-twisting Hindi names slide musically from him and his ebullient energy never wanes.

Metaphorical Bubblegum

When pens have teeth and words have breath reality expands and collapses gets masticated and expands again. Our universal myths are eternal.

A truimph of optimism and joy de vivre

I like this story, it deals with many themes of our present world , and it has a light playful air about it . it laughs when arrogant or fundamentalists only have violence and threats. This book is deeply optimistic and pragmatic

Fabulous Storytelling

This highly mannered, very stylized, fascinatingly Indian, provocative, slightly puckish, fairy-tale-like work was my first introduction to Rushdie’s work and I found it utterly engaging. (It helped that I was already familiar with the Ramayana, a frequent background shadow .) This joy was amplified by Sid Sagar’s flawless reading, entirely appropriate to the text’s style and impressively able to incorporate GRACEFULLY hundreds of polysyllabic names that would be difficult for most English speakers. (Don’t be intimidated by them. They flow through the tale with the naturalness of a bubbling stream.) The book will not be to everybody’s taste, but for lots of us this is easy to like.

A worthy addition to Rushdie's collected fables

Salman Rushdie does not disappoint with this recent addition to his canon of magical realism. Overall, the novel is an impressive contribution to his body of work. As an audiobook, the only caveat I would offer is that the convoluted plot with revolving minor characters is not a good fit for short listening sessions. This is a book I could really only enjoy when I had sufficient time to plug in for at least 30 continuous minutes.

Outstanding

Don’t let the complicated place names and people’s names deter you from reading and/or listening to this brilliant tale. I was transported.