The Bandit Queens

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. -- Claire Allfree * The Times *
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. -- Laura Wilson * Guardian *
A radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good husbands by a cast of unsinkable women -- Chandler Baker * New York Times *
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. -- Good Housekeeping * Good Housekeeping *
Shroff cleverly considers how women might achieve autonomy within rural India's patriarchal society through shrewd, if complicated, female friendships. -- Washington Post * Washington Post *
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. -- Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of BLACK CAKE
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. -- Téa Obreht * Téa Obreht, Orange Prize-winning author of THE TIGER'S WIFE *
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. -- Elizabeth McCracken * Elizabeth McCracken *
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! -- Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban and The Lady Matador’s Hotel
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. -- Louise Minchin * Louise Minchin, Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 Judge *
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. -- Charmaine Wilkerson * Charmaine Wilkerson, author of BLACK CAKE *
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. -- Dan Sheehan, Book Marks Editor-in-Chief * LitHub *
a dark yet uplifting story of village women who fight domestic violence and caste discrimination -- Susan Blumberg-Kason * Asian Review of Books *
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 * Apple Books *
Parini Shroff's colourful debut novel, The Bandit Queens, [is] an irreverent and unusual tale of struggle and sisterhood in rural India. -- Radio Times * Radio Times *
This mordantly humoured, pacey revenge comedy succeeds in being both feelgood and gleefully nasty, tender and violent. -- Patricia Nicol * The Sunday Times *
...a fast-paced, dark comedy of female friendship, revenge, murder and survival. * Mirror *