From the description, this one sounded like it was right in my wheelhouse. A fantastical story of a 14th century Indian woman named Pampa Kampana, who is divined with the power of a goddess to create a city where women have the same agency as men. And written by the amazing Salman Rushie? I mean, what lit-fiction book nerd (me!) wouldn't pick this up?

Rushie's superior writing talents are on full display and the story is fascinating and well-executed. I like how it is framed as the translation of an ancient epic tale. The main storyline--the building of a city from the ground up and its eventual tarnishing by the ego, corruption, and capacity of evil of human nature has shades of the creation story from the Bible. And it's expansive as a metaphor for life itself--the bad that humans are capable of breaking through and diminishing the beauty and goodness of the human experience. I especially liked Rushdie's focus on the patriarchy and how it still managed to affect a society with females in traditionally male roles (army, leader, sexually liberal).

I think that fact that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would has more to do with me than the book. I may have had too high of expectations so nothing short of a literary masterpiece would do? It's good, there's no doubt about that. I just think I was expecting it to blow me away, which it didn't.