About the Book
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick 2023
'Not since Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger has the rotten core of modern India been exposed in quite such blackly antic fashion as Parini Shroff manages here in this intermittently absurd, feminist revenge caper about a group of snarky, much-abused, predominantly Hindu wives...sheer gutsy verve.' The Times
'A darkly funny revenge drama rooted in the reality of rural India . . . [A] vivid, unsentimental story that succeeds in being both satirical and moving.' Guardian
'A radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good husbands by a cast of unsinkable women' - New York Times
'Mordantly humoured, pacey feminist revenge thriller' - The Sunday Times
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For Geeta, life as a widow is more peaceful than life as a wife...
Until the other women in her village decide they want to be widows, too.
Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband - a rumour she hasn't bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she's approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village....
A darkly irreverent and fresh take on a feminist revenge thriller, perfect for readers of My Sister the Serial Killer, How To Kidnap The Rich and the Sharon Horgan series Bad Sisters.
'Tender, unpredictable, brimming with laugh-out-loud moments' Téa Obreht, author of THE TIGER'S WIFE
'Original, memorable, and endearing' Charmaine Wilkerson, author of BLACK CAKE
'A rollicking mash-up of adventure story, thriller, dark revenge, and comedy' Cristina García, author of DREAMING IN CUBAN
About the Author :
Parini Shroff is a graduate of Loyola Law School and holds a MFA from the University of Texas in Austin. Her work has appeared in journals such as Southern Humanities Review, Salamander and MacGuffin, among others. Her interests include reading in the bathtub with wine, concerts and boxing.
Review :
Not since Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger has the rotten core of modern India been exposed in quite such blackly antic fashion as Parini Shroff manages here in this intermittently absurd, feminist revenge caper about a group of snarky, much-abused, predominantly Hindu wives...sheer gutsy verve.
Shroff's debut is a darkly funny revenge drama rooted in the reality of rural India . . . Shroff doesn't pull any punches in this vivid, unsentimental story that succeeds in being both satirical and moving.
A radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good husbands by a cast of unsinkable women
This funny, feel-good read is a rollicking ride rife with memorable characters involved in ill-fated hijinks. It also serves up commentary on class, power dynamics and the role of women in society, with a feminist history lesson to boot.
Shroff cleverly considers how women might achieve autonomy within rural India's patriarchal society through shrewd, if complicated, female friendships.
The Bandit Queens is an original, memorable, and endearing story. At times deeply serious, at times laugh-out-loud funny...a sobering but hopeful exploration of womanhood, social injustices, and second chances.
Parini Shroff captures the complexity of female friendship with acuity, wit, and a certain kind of magic irreverence, turning on a dime from humor to horror, horror to heart, and then back again, exhilarating her reader until the very last line. Tender, unpredictable, brimming with laugh-out-loud moments, The Bandit Queens heralds a prodigious and sophisticated literary talent.
Parini Shroff's splendid The Bandit Queens is a hilarious romp about serious things - as serious as a novel gets, and as funny, too, with characters who are dear and maddening and indelible and gorgeously drawn. Twisty, compulsive, bold, surprising, moving: it's a wonderful book.
Parini Schroff's debut novel, The Bandit Queens, is a rollicking mash-up of adventure story, thriller, dark revenge, and comedy. Rooted in a rural village in India-and led by the pariah widow Geeta, who everyone believes to have killed her husband-a handful of women band together to take back their lives, and take down the patriarchy. An immensely enjoyable read!
An extraordinary caper of a novel. I've never met a character like Geeta...it is dark - but also it's utterly compelling and funny.
This is the best book I've read in a while. THE BANDIT QUEENS is an original, memorable, and endearing story. At times deeply serious, at times laugh-out-loud funny, THE BANDIT QUEENS is a sobering but hopeful exploration of womanhood, social injustices, and second chances in an Indian village.
One of the most talked-about debut novels of the year lives up to the hype and then some. The story of Geetha, a tough-but-wounded young woman in a remote Indian village who, after her abusive husband disappears, gains a reputation as a black widow. These rumors prove somewhat beneficial to Geetha in her desire to be left alone...until other women start approaching her for help in disposing their own shitty husbands. Uproarious, tender, and at times quite harrowing, with razor-sharp dialogue and a truly magnificent cast of characters, The Bandit Queens is a darkly hilarious delight of a novel.
a dark yet uplifting story of village women who fight domestic violence and caste discrimination
an audacious high-wire act of a novel that mingles the deadly serious with the highly comic, yet never loses its profound empathy for the women at its heart
Parini Shroff's colourful debut novel, The Bandit Queens, [is] an irreverent and unusual tale of struggle and sisterhood in rural India.
This mordantly humoured, pacey revenge comedy succeeds in being both feelgood and gleefully nasty, tender and violent.
...a fast-paced, dark comedy of female friendship, revenge, murder and survival.
