Some of the battle scenes and violence in Victory City, the epic new novel by Salman Rushdie, may induce a wince or two – especially graphic descriptions such as “the cannibal pungency of women being cooked alive”. Rushdie wrote these words before suffering that horrific attack at the Chautauqua Institution in New York in August 2022, when the 75-year-old author, who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed 15 times, causing him to lose the sight in one eye and the use of one hand.
Rushdie’s courage and steadfast belief in free speech continue to be a source of inspiration and his exuberant writing remains a source of pleasure. Victory City, an ersatz translation of an ancient Indian epic, deals with the aftermath of a battle between two kingdoms in 14th-century southern India.
