Parini Shroff Interview, plus links to author biography, book summaries, excerpts and reviews

An interview with Parini Shroff

Parini Shroff talks how a visit home in India inspired her debut novel, The Bandit Queens

Dear Reader,

On February 14, 2013, I repaid the last of my law school loans. By that May, I'd quit my firm in Los Angeles to move to Austin, Texas to write. That summer, before I began my MFA program at UT, I visited my family in India.

While in Gujarat, my father, my brother, and I drove to the village of Samadra, to attend a women's meeting of microloan group my father was involved in financing. I'd viewed my debt as shackles to a job for which I wasn't particularly suited. To these women, however, loans were a boon, a buoy offering life and independence. Money lent them agency—so long as the men around them permitted it, that is.

By the time I was on a plane to Texas, Geeta and Farah were born within a short story and had forged an economic alliance to "get rid" of Farah's money-siphoning husband. They were unsuccessful back then and the story ended with a quiet fizzle.

It was not until years later that I had the thought: But what if they actually did it? Not only that, what if other women wanted in on the action?

This book is set in a fictional village in Gujarat, where its denizens have recently acquired city comforts such as toilets and solar power. Despite these struggles specific to developing countries, this Indian village is reminiscent of any small neighborhood or community, where such intimacy can feel comforting ... or claustrophobic. Families have known each other for generations, reputation is one's currency, gossip runs amok, and it's all but impossible to keep secrets—especially ones about murder. The close- knit bonds within such a village, however, are also what drive these characters to their ultimate actions and choices.

I wrote this novel in 2020 and its pages were a cozy bolt-hole in the grim pandemic days where I, like so many of us, deeply missed my friends. Once the ensemble cast of female characters had been drawn, there was no stopping these rambunctious women. Isolated, they felt powerless; but together, the strong bonds of their female friendship made the impossible suddenly achievable. It was then that I realized the heart of this book isn't about what money can do, it's about what friendship can.

Each day, I loved returning to these sassy, fierce women and their escalating antics. It is my hope that you will feel just as heartened when you join their world. They embody so many of the traits I admire in the women around me: unapologetic, clever, strong, insightful, kind, generous, and just plain damn fun.

Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.