September 2026 – The Girl With the Seven Lives by Vikas Swarup: INDIA

1st September 2026

The Girl With The Seven Lives by Vikas Swarup, a novel of adventure and hardship set across INDIA

This story takes the reader to Delhi, Punjab, Goa, Kottayam and Mumbai

The story has Devi at its heart, whose early days were spent in the Rail Basti in Delhi, a poorer than poorer slum area of the city. She is soon left to her own devices as an orphan and through a series of miscalculations balanced by fortuitous encounters, she meanders through her life, bagging one adventure after another.

As the novel opens, she is being held captive and her captor is walking her through her seven lives, auctioning her off to the highest bidder. In each case there is someone who is more than willing get redress through this bizarre process. And they are willing to pay her captor a large amount of money for the privilege and undoubtedly for revenge.

In many ways this is a light hearted novel with Devi – who morphs into Deepa and Deeba, Dasmeet and Deepthi, Diana and Dolly (depending on where her latest adventure has taken her and who her newly invented person will be). But it also underlines how vulnerable the people at the lowest end of the caste system are, how heartless society can be and how men are so often the main tormentors and abusers of women.

A really immersive read, written with gusto and tremendous observation. A worthy successor to Slumdog Millionaire.

#ADPR