It appears that Salman Rushdie is as prolific as ever despite it being only four months since he was badly injured in a stabbing incident in New York.
The author released an excerpt from his new book on Dec 5. The excerpt titled A Sackful of Seeds was published online and is from his 15th novel which is titled Victory City. The book will be published in early February by Penguin Random House.
The New Yorker said that its print edition would publish the excerpt on Dec 12 and it would be on sale the same day. Rushdie confirmed the same on Twitter as well. This was his first Twitter post since his stabbing in New York.
The writer has received death threats for years after his book the Satanic Verses came out in 1988.
His attack sparked outrage and the suspect Hadi Matar, 24 from New Jersey was arrested and pleaded not guilty.
The book Victory City is described by its publisher as an epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence. The story is set in the wake of an unimportant battle between two long forgotten kingdoms in 14th century India. In this scenario, a nine year old girl has a divine encounter that changes the course of history.
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After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana become 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 – ‘victory city’ – the wonder of the world.
Over the next 250 years, Pampa Kampana’ life becomes intertwined 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.
Victory City is a saga of love, adventure, and mythology that reminds us of what story telling is all about.