Phoolan

14 February 1981 . . . one by one she lined up the Thakurs of Behmai, screaming for the blood of the ‘twins’—Tool Box and Boss—the two bandits. Disgraced by them for twenty-three days; worse still, forced to cross the square naked, and losing Vikram, her lover, to their bullets, this was the day of her revenge. Violence, rape and cold-blooded murder run like leitmotifs through this part real, part fictional novel, based on the life of Phoolan Devi, who terrorised parts of northern India from 1981 to 1983. And yet there is more than darkness, as her complex faces are revealed: the revengeful woman but playful, sensuous, seeking gentleness sometimes, and the rebel, disdainful of tradition from girlhood. The French original of this novel, Devi, has sold over a million copies.