Phoolan

This book weaves in detail the story of the legendary, woman bandit, Phoolan Devi, and is stirring for its exceptional candor and sympathy. Phoolan, is a part real, part fictional work.  The story of Phoolan Devi is being constantly refashioned, including by herself, its heroine but not always its mater; it is made of the stuff of which myths are woven. It is the tale of the rather strange little girl of whom women said that time would tame her, of the legendary criminal who would keep breathless the police force of Uttar Pradesh till her proud surrender in 1983. The author met her heroine in jail in April 1990, after four years of unsuccessful quest. A perfect mix of real and imaginary which makes us feel the dark seduction of a universe laden with the monsoon and supernatural, torn between the aspiration for peace of a Buddha or a Gandhi and tribal cults exacerbated to murderous frenzy. In the 1991 elections, the Bandit Queen gets 17 votes; in 1993, the wild and lyrical voice of Irene Frain makes her live as a character in a novel and it is irresistible.