Salman Rushdie releases new novel, six months after knife attack

The 15th novel of Salman Rushdie's 'Victory City' was released six months after the attack. The novel is an epic tale of a young orphan with magical powers.

Kolkata:Six months after being stabbed in the US, bestselling author Salman Rushdie released his new novel 'Victory City', which is an epic tale of a woman of the 14th century, who disobeys the patriarchal world to rule a city. Rushdie's 15th novel, which was written before he was attacked, claims to be a translation of a historical epic that was originally written in Sanskrit. It is a story about a young orphan girl Pampa Kampana, who is gifted with magical powers to create the Victory City 'Bisnaga' in the 14th century. The novel concludes with the line - "Words are the only victors".

Due to his physical condition, Rushdie would not be able to promote his new novel though sources said he is recovering fast. He is not promoting the book personally, but has started interacting through Twitter. The 75-year-old author was attacked while he was about to deliver a lecture at Chautauqua in New York on August 12, 2022.

It may be recalled he was in exile for years after receiving death threats from Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in the 1980s after the publication of his novel, 'The Satanic Verses'. His suspected attacker Hadi Matar (24), who was arrested immediately, had left him with a damaged eye and arm. He had to be kept under the ventilator for a prolonged period. The attack had left the entire country in shock, but was welcomed by extremists in Muslim countries like Iran and Pakistan. Rushdie was born in Mumbai in 1947 and his first novel 'Grimus' was published in 1975. Six years later, his bestseller, 'Midnight's Children' bagged the Booker Prize.