Roughly a year ago, in an exclusive interview with TOI’s Vinita Dawra Nangia at the Times Literature Festival 2021, former Booker Prize-winner Salman Rushdie revealed about his upcoming book. "After 10 years of which mostly I have written these western-based novels, which are mostly set in America, I think it might be time to come back to India. I think my next novel appears to be an Indian novel," Rushdie had shared in the interview.
Recently, on August 9, 2022, announcing his new novel, Rushdie had shared the cover of his upcoming book on social media. Titled 'Victory City', Rushdie's new novel will be published by Penguin Random House on February 9, 2023.
Set in Southern India, Rushdie's upcoming novel 'Victory City' is a story of love, adventure, and myth and it is said to be "styled as a translation of an ancient epic".
The book's blurb reads, as per Penguin Random House's website, "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 her namesake, the goddess Pampa, 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—literally “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. 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."
Meanwhile, on August 12, 2022, Rushdie was attacked on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. He was at the venue to present a lecture. Rushdie was stabbed 15 times and was later airlifted to a hospital. His attacker, who is identified as Hadi Matar, was restrained immediately. As per AP's latest report, 'Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and he was able to talk on August 13, 2022 (Saturday), a day after he was stabbed'.
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