The Bandit Queen

"O Bandit Queen!" the bandits cried. "Little horror! Poison weed! We'll give you everything a queen could ever need..." The bandits give their queen treasure, tigers, mischief and mayhem. But sometimes a little girl needs something more... A beautiful book about finding family in unexpected places, from the creators of Hortense and the Shadow.

In June 1992, author Roy Moxham did a very strange thing: he wrote to a bandit in an Indian jail. Phoolan Devi was the controversial and charismatic 'Bandit Queen' hailed as a modern-day Robin Hood in the villages surrounding Delhi. In revenge for her own gang rape, her followers killed 20 high-caste Indians, which led to her surrender and imprisonment. Struck by her story and appalled by her plight, Roy Moxham helped Phoolan Devi obtain justice, offered her encouragement when she became an MP in India on her release, and travelled with her for several years before she was finally gunned down in 2001. Based on the diaries that documented their extraordinary friendship, Moxham offers a fascinating portrait of a remarkable woman and reveals the hidden face of India.

When trust fund baby-turned-waitress Allie and her friends accidentally open a Door to Hell in the basement of Sally's Diner, they don't realize the havoc it will wreak on their Brooklyn neighborhood. Of course, the upside to murder-happy demons coming through the Door all the time is that Allie gets her own sexy and mysterious demon hunter: the dark-eyed, leather-clad, Stetson-wearing Ryan.Ryan teaches Allie everything he knows about fighting the creatures of the underworld-but refuses to give in to the sexual tension that simmers between them. Allie has almost given up on taking her relationship with Ryan to the next level when there's a surge in demonic activity... and the Door disappears.Now Allie and Ryan have to travel through Hell, literally, to try to stop Hell from taking over the Earth. They may not survive the trip, but Allie is about to discover something very important: Mortal peril is a total turn-on.

She rebelled against the ancient tribal rules of India, her country, resulting in her becoming a Robin Hood type bandit. Essentially sold at the age of 11 to become a wife for a much older man, she ran away when he raped her. From that point on, there were few choices for her but to join a roaming gang of bandits, her ambition and thirst for revenge leading her to become their rebel chief. Ultimately, society caught up with her and she even became a strong voice for change, women, and social justice as a representative in the Indian parliament. A story of courage and unbending determination in front of centuries of established inequities in the classic Indian caste system.

Enduring cruel poverty and degradation, Phoolan Devi survived the humiliation and horrifying gang rape to claim retribution for herself and all low-caste women of the Indian plains. In a three-year campaign which rocked the government, she delivered justice to rape victims and stole from the rich to give to the poor, before negotiating surrender on her own terms. Throughout her years of imprisonment without trial Phoolan Devi remained a beacon of hope for the poor and downtrodden, and in 1996, admist both popular support and media controversy, she was elected to the Indian Parliament. For over a decade journalists, biographers and film-makers have found the power and scope of Phoolan Devi's myth irresistible. Now finally she tells the story of her life through her eyes and in her own voice.

She named it Laws of the Bandit Queens after Phoolan Devi, an Indian woman who rebelled from childhood against everything her culture demanded of her." "After two years of photography sessions and interviews in every thinkable location, from a rooftop in New York City to the women's ward of a prison, Ali's work is done. The result is a fun and inspiring collection of portraits - in words and pictures. Each of these incredible women offers a law for women and girls to live by."--BOOK JACKET.

"Through the dark and wolfish woods, through the white and silent snow, lived a small girl called Hortense. Though kind and brave, she was sad as an owl because of one thing . . . Hortense hated her shadow." A beautifully illustrated dark fairy tale that will remind you of the fables you read as a child. A treasure not to be missed.