Victory City Audiobook By Salman Rushdie cover art

Victory City

A Novel

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Victory City

By: Salman Rushdie
Narrated by: Sid Sagar
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries—from the transcendent imagination of Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie is one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year • “Victory City is a triumph—not because it exists, but because it is utterly enchanting.”—The Atlantic

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Chicago Public Library, Polygon, The Globe and Mail, Bookreporter

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 a goddess, 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’s life becomes deeply interwoven 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.

Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, Victory City is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is in itself a testament to the power of storytelling.

©2023 Salman Rushdie (P)2023 Random House Audio
Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Magical Realism Thought-Provoking Mind-Bending City Royalty Magical Realism Fiction
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Critic reviews

“An astounding work of historical fiction and magical realism . . . With wonder and humor, Rushdie spins a decades-long tale about power, philosophy, justice, and exile that boldly confronts the issues modern societies still face.”TIME Magazine

“[Victory City] feels like a triumphant scream against censorship as well as a celebration of language, storytelling, and otherness. . . . Literature can offer guides to a better future, even when it’s fiction about the past, and Victory City is precisely that.”Boston Globe

“Rushdie’s return to magic, myth, and India’s ancient stories is dazzling . . . Whether it’s an allegory for present-day India or a feminist retelling of a pre-colonial empire (or both!), Victory City nevertheless celebrates a singular story of female resilience.”Esquire

Imaginative Storytelling • Rich Allegory • Flawless Narration • Sweeping Epic Tale • Mythical Historical Fiction
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Extremely circonlocutions story. The characters are not likable and the events run in a very speedy way. The narrator is absolutely excellent.

Not my favorite Salman Rushdie’s book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I was entranced from the beginning, pages to the end… A wonderful book for reading, or listening.

I love this book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Enthralling, adventurous and consuming from beginning to end! A definite recommendation to any reader of quality literature.

Riveting!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Salman Rushdie is known for his inventive storytelling and Delhi-born narrator Sid Sagar doubles the impact with his marvelous performance. The complex and tongue-twisting Hindi names slide musically from him and his ebullient energy never wanes.

Imaginative Rushdie novel brilliantly performed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What a delight, in this fraught moment, to be given a magical new novel by Salman Rushdie. Though “Victory City” was completed before the knife attack at Chautauqua , it’s impossible not to read parts of this grand fantasy as an allegory of the author’s struggles against sectarian hatred and ignorance. Indeed, given the physical and emotional sacrifices he’s made, some coincidences between this story and his own life are almost too poignant to bear.

A masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This reminded me of the stories I’ve read about Solomon’s experiences mixed with the Gita or Book of Job. I know these are different cultures and beliefs, but brought similar feels and connections for me. It is a beautifully written book that I enjoyed; I just didn’t feel deeply connected to the characters or feel as drawn as I would have loved to be.

Beautifully told story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

When pens have teeth and words have breath reality expands and collapses gets masticated and expands again. Our universal myths are eternal.

Metaphorical Bubblegum

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I like this story, it deals with many themes of our present world , and it has a light playful air about it . it laughs when arrogant or fundamentalists only have violence and threats. This book is deeply optimistic and pragmatic

A truimph of optimism and joy de vivre

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

One should or perhaps must? Be a fan of Salman Rushdie. This epic tale is both very true and exceedingly false, as metaphors on want to be. After pages and pages of rivals and gods fighting and f*cking there comes the final chapter with all the wisdom of the book’s 247 years. A great read and the narration was perfect. Don’t try to remember the characters names tho, from the beginning I found that part difficult but also funny.

Epic journey thru the imagination of SR…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This highly mannered, very stylized, fascinatingly Indian, provocative, slightly puckish, fairy-tale-like work was my first introduction to Rushdie’s work and I found it utterly engaging. (It helped that I was already familiar with the Ramayana, a frequent background shadow .) This joy was amplified by Sid Sagar’s flawless reading, entirely appropriate to the text’s style and impressively able to incorporate GRACEFULLY hundreds of polysyllabic names that would be difficult for most English speakers. (Don’t be intimidated by them. They flow through the tale with the naturalness of a bubbling stream.) The book will not be to everybody’s taste, but for lots of us this is easy to like.

Fabulous Storytelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews