PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Rushdie's latest novel is a big colourful tale of a nine year old girl, Pampa Kampana, who having witnessed the death of her mother becomes a goddess herself, whispering into life the great city of Bisnaga. Kampana records the city's rise and fall in an epic poem called the Jayaparajaya, similar to The Mahabharata. Rushdie has created a world that the reader falls into with an imagination glorious in its scope and humanity. Funny, sad and entirely relatable to the present this is one to be savoured. Greg
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 the author of fourteen previous novels - Luka and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker); Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor's Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House; and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize) - and one collection of short stories- East, West. He has also published five works of nonfiction - The Jaguar Smile; Imaginary Homelands; Step Across This Line; Joseph Anton; and Languages of Truth - and coedited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Rushdie's latest novel is a big colourful tale of a nine year old girl, Pampa Kampana, who having witnessed the death of her mother becomes a goddess herself, whispering into life the great city of Bisnaga. Kampana records the city's rise and fall in an epic poem called the Jayaparajaya, similar to The Mahabharata. Rushdie has created a world that the reader falls into with an imagination glorious in its scope and humanity. Funny, sad and entirely relatable to the present this is one to be savoured. Greg
In its haunting, uncanny, predictive power Victory City shows once again why his work will always matter. * New York Times * A novel by a man who still, in his eighth decade, derives delight in his talent and all that he can do with it. The book is a total pleasure to read, a bright burst of colour in a grey winter season. * Sunday Times * A joyfully extravagant alternative Mahabharata... a mashup of myth and fairytale, comedy and melodrama, celebrating women's agency and the enduring power of storytelling. * Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023* * Victory City is full of life and colour, and some of Rushdie's key themes: female strength, the importance of storytelling, the danger of censorship. * Sunday Times, *Summer Reads of 2023* * What of Rushdie's powers? We cannot know if they are god-given, but on the evidence of this profoundly entertaining tale... Rushdie certainly still has the gift of alchemy. * Financial Times * A playful, magical realist epic, full of adventure and comically clashing registers, and a celebration of the power of storytelling and the endurance of literature. * Guardian * Rushdie’s sheer love of fiction is irrepressible. * Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year* * One of the richest and most exuberant books Salman Rushdie has written in years... remarkable. * Scotsman, *Summer Reads of 2023* * Rushdie's relentless creative energy pairs well with his understanding of how history works... It's as if Rushdie has dropped a molecule of divinity into a petri dish containing the other basic stuff of life, and watched a civilization cultivate. * TIME * Rushdie's lavish, playful 15th novel plants him firmly back on Indian soil, cooking up an alternative Mahabharata and spinning an elaborate founding myth from the bare bones of history. He's enjoying the enterprise and his sense of fun is infectious. * Guardian *
