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Victory city, Salman Rushdie

eng

Includes bibliographical references

no index present

fiction

Victory city

Salman Rushdie

In the wake of an insignificant battle between two longforgotten kingdoms in fourteenthcentury southern India, a nineyearold girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the griefstricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, 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 Parvati 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 centre

adult