This book had me hooked from the start. It sent me on an absolute rollercoaster of emotions and I was desperate to find out how everything played out. Throughout the book you meet an array of characters both good and bad, and can’t help but root for the main character.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fast paced story with a main character who’s full of grit and determination.

This book is a brilliant read - fast-paced, gripping with a diverse cast of characters. A thought-provoking social commentary on modern Indian society. The action takes place in diverse cities across India, making this an absorbing read.
Highly recommended.

Swarup hit on a successful formula last time round...and he's sticking to it here. It's not as entertaining as, for example, Bandit Queens; it's not as daring as some other slum-to-success stories. But it's solid, workable and quite funny.

A fast paced thriller set in frenetic modern India.
Thank You to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC. My review is voluntary.
Devi has had to reinvent herself time and time again. In each of her seven lives, she’s lived an extraordinary existence, making both friends and enemies along the way. Now, her enemies are vying to claim her, hoping to finally take their revenge. But as Devi tells her story, it becomes clear that she’s no villain at all—she’s a hero.
This is a colourful tale set across vibrant Indian locations, highlighting the stark inequalities where the wealthy can evade justice for their crimes, while the poor struggle to access even basic medical care.
The novel is easy to read, broken up into a series of vignettes. The language is straightforward, and the story moves at a good pace.
The ending is almost too good to be true, yet so satisfying that the reader wouldn’t want it any other way.

Vikas Swarup has an interesting model for his novels - they are set in India and generally have an episodic format, with characters relating particular chapters of their lives, which are usually blighted by poverty and corruption. The most famous of his books is 'Q&A' which was filmed as the Oscar winning 'Slumdog Millionaire' - although I actually preferred all three of his other novels (including this one) to that book.

In 'The Girl with Seven Lives', a young woman named Devi (and various other things) is snatched from a Mumbai street and made to recount her life story to a camera. Watching are various rich and unpleasant people who have reason to want revenge on her, with her captor autioning her life to the highest bidder. Although Devi is by her own confession a criminal and murderer, it is quickly clear that she is more sinned-against than sinning. After growing up (although only as far as junior school age) in a Delhi slum, she is orphaned and her life develops in extraordinary ways. Every time she gets a new beginning, it's not long before it all goes wrong. So she flees from one bad situation to another, making a series of powerful enemies - the people now bidding for her life.

Stories about poverty and how awful it is are nothing new, but what really affected me deeply in this particular story was the impact of corruption. I don't know why it got to me so much in this novel - it's not that I haven't read plenty of other stories with that as a theme, including Swarup's others - but somehow this really got through to me. The sheer injustice of a world where money buys inpugnity from the law is spelt out again and again. For the poor, trying to live a decent life and do the right thing by others is not only unrewarding, but likely to get you killed. The only people who can succeed are the wealthy and unscrupulous. I don't know how true to life it is - I hope it's exaggerated, but I fear it isn't based on some of the news stories I have read.

Despite her crimes, I couldn't condemn Devi - I wanted her to escape and survive. She is a likeable character, resourceful and courageous despite her wretched life. She meets people both good and bad - mainly bad, it has to be said - and travels to lots of parts of India which gives an interesting setting and overview of the diversity of the country. There's a kaleidoscope of different aspects of early 21st century India encompassing the super rich, the slums, a hospital in Goa, a religious cult in Punjab, a forgery ring in Kerala. It's a plot driven story that is full of events and therefore absorbing and gripping. You never know where Devi will end up next or what identity she will need to adopt to survive.

If you enjoy literary fiction and books set in India, this is a great read. Swarup's books have a quirkiness to them, which makes them less heavy going than stories about poverty and hardship usually are - although he never makes light of the subject matter either. There's usually a long wait between his novels - but it is worth it.

What a storyteller. What a story.

I could not put this down- rocking the baby back to sleep at 3am with one hand and reading this book on a dark screen with the other hand.

Some books take a little part of you when you read them and this was one of them.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This is an easy and very enjoyable read. I flew through it and could hardly put it down. It is fast paced and exciting. There is a wide range of characters, all different and believable and it is interesting to see different parts of India and step into its often corrupt, desperately unequal and chaotic world.

Devi is a great character who is persistent, cheerful, absolutely irrepressible and who bounces back from all her disappointments and setbacks and moves on to the next adventure. Despite all the things she does (the book is partly a revenge fantasy, and who doesn't love that?), she acts as a last resort under extreme provocation so you cheer her on and very much want her to succeed.

All the "lives" are interesting. Often in these sorts of books, there are one or two weaker stories but here, each one is perfect, all varied and all just about believable. I am forced to admit that the reappearance at the very end of a character from Devi's childhood is a bit jarring and stretches credulity but hey ho, I was so invested in Devi that I wanted a good ending!