Victory City

Presented as the retelling of an ancient epic, this novel follows Pampa Kampana, a girl who receives divine powers after a tragedy in fourteenth-century southern India. She helps to create a city, Bisnaga, from magic seeds, and populates it with people brought to life by her will. Over the centuries she watches its kings, wars, rivalries and ideals rise and change. The book is a fable about power, women's voices, religious tolerance and the way stories shape history. It is inventive, humorous and told with the flavour of old Indian chronicles.