Victory City

Pampa Kampana, a nine-year-old girl in 14th-century India, witnesses her mother die in a fiery blaze. Her namesake goddess then enters Pampa’s body and directs her life for the next 247 years. Pampa is given a bag of seeds from which she grows Victory City and all the region’s inhabitants. The newly created people don’t know who they are, so Pampa whispers into their ears and supplies them with roles and backstories that give them a sense of their history and lineage. The question of who will rule the city arises almost immediately, and while Pampa struggles to create a world where women and men are equal and where tolerance is the rule, her plans are thwarted at every turn. Rushdie’s story is hauntingly familiar, mimicking the path of most known civilizations from birth to death. The inevitability of the outcome, even when a goddess is in charge, warns of the future of the current version of civilization.