The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

 If you enjoy an excellent, character driven novel that immerses you in a different culture giving the reader a vivid sense of place then this might be the book for you. It was for me.

You can approach it as a crime story but it is so much more than that.

The setting is contemporary in a small village in India where having a refrigerator and indoor bathroom are luxuries. Geeta is the main character. The villagers believe she “disappeared” her husband. Though innocent, letting people believe she murdered her husband has benefits. No one messes with her. Her hero is the bandit queen Phoolan Devi, a real person of the Dalit caste (i.e. untouchable), who exacted bloody revenge on the men who horrifically abused and tortured her.

Geeta is part of a female loan group that has taken out a small business loan. They meet monthly to make a payment to the loan officer. Her relationship to the other women is not at all friendly given her reputation, it’s strictly business. One of the group, Farah, often has difficulty making her payment due to her husband who bleeds her dress making business dry to fuel his alcoholism. This jeopardizes the loan which doesn’t make the other women happy. She approaches Geeta for help in disposing of her husband. Geeta isn’t a killer but finds herself reluctantly helping Farah plan the murder. When another woman sees Farah’s success, she looks to Geeta for her expertise.

The core of the story is the relationship that builds among the women. They find strength together in a culture of systemic misogyny and abuse. Geeta loses her aloofness as the women bond. The dialog is smoothly realistic and frequently wry, sly, witty, snarky, and funny, just what I enjoy. There are also scenes of thrilling danger and extreme peril but even there Shroff finds a way to inject humor.

Around this story of female empowerment and friendship is the structure of embedded misogyny and the caste system which is still in the culture particularly in small villages. I've never had a book pull me into a culture like this one does. The issue of caste is shown by through character Khushi, a Dalit widow who has a cremation business. We see her in public and the strictures under which she and her children have to conduct themselves. It both appalls and sparks empathy in the reader. But in her home, away from the higher castes, Khushi is a strong, assertive woman who isn't shy about putting Geeta in her place when she tries to "help".

I loved and cared about the characters and what happened to them. I enthusiastically recommended this book.