Victory City

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

“A major accomplishment by one of our greatest living writers.”—Michael Cunningham

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2023: Time, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, The Tampa Bay Times, The Week, CNBC, Business Insider, Kirkus Reviews

In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. Pampa Kampana is granted powers behind her comprehension by a goddess who tells her she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—"victory city"—the wonder of the world.

Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing out of 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...

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.

Story Locale:Bisnaga, a fictional city in Southern India

Publication History:RH HC (2/23)

About the Author

Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, and Quichotte, all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize; a collection of stories, East, West; a memoir, Joseph Anton; a work of reportage, The Jaguar Smile; and three collections of essays, most recently Languages of Truth. His many awards include the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, which he won twice; the PEN/Allen Literary Service Award; the National Arts Award; the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger; the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature; the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature; and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and he is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU. He is a former president of PEN America. His books have been translated into over forty languages.

Author Residence: New York, NY

Author Hometown: Bombay, India