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.