Victory City by Salman Rushdie

Hidden in a clay pot. Sealed with wax. Buried at the heart of a ruined palace amidst the ashes of one of India's greatest, nearly forgotten empires. A story waits to be told.

In the fourteenth century of the Common Era, in the South of what we now call India, nine-year-old Pampa Kampana, orphaned by war, starts hearing the voice of a goddess. Inspired, and imbued with powerful magic, she vows to ensure that no more women suffer her beloved mother's unconscionable fate. Aided by miracles and a gift for prophecy, she creates a mighty city; her whispered words galvanize its people to grow and change. Her poetry maps the rise and fall of its empire. And the prophetess herself--beloved, feared, timeless--watches as the world changes across the centuries and her body, frozen in the beauty of youth for decades upon decades, fades along with her city's glory. Half a millennium later, her writing is discovered, deep in the ancient earth.

The thirteenth novel from the incomparable Salman Rushdie, Victory City is an epic tale with a message for us all: our power is fleeting, but our stories last forever.