The Bandit Queens

I found this book lighter than expected considering its subject matter! It's a well-written, clever, and entertaining debut.

The story follows Geeta, a thirty-something-year-old woman living in - and ostracized by - a small village in India; everyone assumes she had something to do with her husband's mysterious disappearance. She tells herself she's made peace with her pariah status, but when a woman in her loan group comes to her for help ‘taking care of' her own abusive husband, she can't bring herself to ignore her - and finds herself in an increasingly tangled web of plans, lies, and backstabbers. Enemies turn to friends and back again as the women examine their relationships and grapple with the age-old question: How many murders is too many, anyway?

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for my ARC.

Holy shit. This was so, so, so good. Sassy; insightful; tender; enraging; illuminating; suspenseful; and smart as hell. And to think I felt dubious going in, fearing it would be fluff! Quite the opposite: I'd call it dense, and if that conjures up a negative impression, let that go. There's just so much in it: toxic masculinity, domestic violence, poverty, injustice, consent, ... but all of it served with a loving heart and a pretty hefty dose of brain. Let's say it's packed. I wasn't able to finish it in one day—see below—but I shuffled priorities to nibble at it every chance I had.You've read the blurb, you know the premise... but you have no idea where it's going. I felt off-balance for most of the book, thinking I had a grasp on the situations and characters, then things change: circumstances progress in interesting ways, and the characters, we learn more about them, information that changes how we see them. Really beautifully done: Shroff writes crisply, sparingly, with an impressive vocabulary, a wry wit, and a poker player's sharpness. We learn what she wants us to learn, when she wants us to learn it, and it's masterful. Cruelty, kindness, nuance, complexity; the book makes demands of the reader, and it rewards in kind.On the subject of demands: Shroff throws a big fuck-you to non-Indians. I spent many minutes, cumulatively easily over an hour, getting up to sit at my laptop and look up Gujarati or Hindi words, Indian customs. Sometimes she explains them a few pages later, more often not. Sometimes they're clear from context, sometimes not. Navrati, kabbadi, crore, gadheda... my time was well spent, and I was curious, and I learned. I am thankful to Shroff for not pandering to me.I loved this book so much that I ordered a copy for myself, to reread and to loan out. (To you, should you wish). But before you read it: if you are not Indian, please take time to learn about Phoolan Devi first. I read [b:this graphic novel 50162467 Phoolan Devi, Rebel Queen Claire Fauvel https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575492203l/50162467.SX50_SY75.jpg 72611481], which J. at Samizdat had pressed on me some months ago, mere days before Bandit Queens—very, very fortuitous timing. Knowing about Devi was infinitely helpful to me in understanding context.Many parts don't add up: some suspension of disbelief is required for the coincidences, a few character interactions, plot gimmicks. All of these are completely forgivable. Wow, what a book.