Salman Rushdie publishes novel, 6 months after knife attack

Six months after being stabbed, British author Salman Rushdie on Tuesday publishes his new novel “Victory City”, an “epic tale” of a 14th-century woman who defies a patriarchal world to rule a city. 

Written before the US knife attack that nearly took the Indian-born author’s life, the novel purports to be a translation of a historical epic originally written in Sanskrit.

The much-anticipated work tells the tale of young orphan girl Pampa Kampana who is endowed by a goddess with magical powers and founds the city, in modern-day India, of Bisnaga, which translates as Victory City. 

Rushdie, will not promote his 15th novel due to his physical condition, although his agent Andrew Wylie told The Guardian that his “recovery is progressing”.While not personally promoting the book, Rushdie has begun to communicate via social network Twitter, most often to share press reviews of his new novel. Several events are also planned to accompany its release, including a conference with writers Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman that will be broadcast online. 

He was attacked as he was about to speak at a conference in Chautauqua in upstate New York, near Lake Erie, on August 12.

His new work follows a heroine on a mission to “give women equal agency in a patriarchal world”, according to publisher Penguin Random House’s summary. The book tells the tale of Pampa Kampana’s creation of a city and of its downfall. The novel concludes with the statement: “Words are the only victors”.