Rushdie’s fifteenth novel, entitled

, was published in February 2023. The author had finished revising the proofs a month before the attempt on his life in August 2022, otherwise he would not have been able to complete the publication process so early after being almost killed.

Context

The novel, like The Enchantress of Florence, is a mixture of history and mythologizing. It concerns the Vijayanagara Empire, a period of Southern Indian history which Rushdie claims has been rather neglected by historians, so that “here was a story to tell”. Rushdie is a Northerner, raised in Bombay; he first visited the town of Hampi as a young man, where he saw the ruins of the medieval Vijayanagara empire, and was fascinated by a civilisation in which women were held in much higher

2140 words

Citation: Pesso-Miquel, Catherine. "Victory City". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41327, accessed 03 May 2024.]