The Bandit Queens

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-four Chapter Twenty-five Chapter Twenty-six Chapter Twenty-seven Chapter Twenty-eight Chapter Twenty-nine Chapter Thirty Epilogue Author’s Note Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List iii iv 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 337 338 339 v 341 342 343 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Bandit Queens is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Parini Shroff
 All rights reserved.
 Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 Ballantine is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Shroff, Parini, author.
 Title: The bandit queens: a novel / Parini Shroff.
 Description: First edition. | New York: Ballantine Books, [2023] | Identifiers: LCCN 2022004241 (print) | LCCN 2022004242 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593498958 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593498965 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PS3619.H778 B36 2023 (print) | LCC PS3619.H778 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022004241
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022004242
 International/Canadian Edition ISBN 9780593599242
 Ebook ISBN 9780593498965
 randomhousebooks.com
 Book design by Susan Turner, adapted for ebook
 Cover design: Elena Giavaldi
 ep_prh_6.0_142201960_c0_r0
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 
 
 Chapter One
 
 
 Chapter Two
 
 
 Chapter Three
 
 
 Chapter Four
 
 
 Chapter Five
 
 
 Chapter Six
 
 
 Chapter Seven
 
 
 Chapter Eight
 
 
 Chapter Nine
 
 
 Chapter Ten
 
 
 Chapter Eleven
 
 
 Chapter Twelve
 
 
 Chapter Thirteen
 
 
 Chapter Fourteen
 
 
 Chapter Fifteen
 
 
 Chapter Sixteen
 
 
 Chapter Seventeen
 
 
 Chapter Eighteen
 
 
 Chapter Nineteen
 
 
 Chapter Twenty
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-one
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-two
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-three
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-four
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-five
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-six
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-seven
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-eight
 
 
 Chapter Twenty-nine
 
 
 Chapter Thirty
 
 
 Epilogue
 
 
 Author’s Note
 Dedication
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 
 
 _142201960_
 
 
 ONE
 The women were arguing. The loan officer was due to arrive in a few hours, and they were still missing two hundred rupees. Rather, Farah and her two hundred rupees were missing. The other four women of their loan group had convened, as they did every Tuesday, to aggregate their respective funds.
 “Where is she?” Geeta asked.
 No one answered. Instead, the women pieced their respective Farah sightings into a jigsaw of gossip that, to Geeta’s ears at least, failed to align. Saloni—a woman whose capacity for food was exceeded only by her capacity for venom—goaded most of the conversation.
 “This isn’t the first time,” Priya said.
 “And you know it won’t be the last,” Saloni finished.
 When Preity mentioned she was fairly certain she’d seen Farah buying hashish, Geeta felt it best to nudge them to more prosaic matters. “Varunbhai is not going to like this.”
 “Well, now we know where her money’s going,” Priya said.
 “Some devout Muslim.” Saloni sniffed, the gesture dainty for a woman of her size. Lately she’d been attempting to rebrand her weight as evidence of her community status. Compounded with her preternatural talent for bullying, this guise worked on the women. But Geeta had known Saloni and her family since childhood—when she ruled the playground rather than their loan group—and could accurately attribute her heft to genetics betraying her in her thirtieth year rather than any posh