NEW DELHI: A former schoolmate traces the life story of Sunanda Pushkar from her early days in cantonment towns to her first two marriages, a largely unknown stint in Canada, her rise as a Dubai businesswoman, and finally her years with Shashi Tharoor until her controversial death shook the country.

In "The Extraordinary Life and Death of Sunanda Pushkar", her journalist friend Sunanda Mehta draws material from personal archives, interviews and investigation across continents to come up with the biography.

The author describes in detail Pushkar's early life especially her school days, her rise as a businesswoman in Dubai, her stint in real estate, her marriages and her days with Tharoor.

On 17 January 2014, Pushkar was found dead in her hotel suite in New Delhi. Her death was as shocking as it was suspect, spawning many a controversy and complex legal battles.

The author talks more of Pushkar's life than about her death.

"Sunanda Pushkar was born, surviving all odds," she writes, as she recalls how the former had not cried on birth and appeared to be stillborn.

"This was a woman who went beyond her bounds and charted a life for herself that was different, daring and daunting, a woman who encountered unbelievable challenges throughout her life, but always bounced back with amazing tenacity," she writes in the book, published by Pan Macmillan.

"She was like a kaleidoscope - each person who knew her saw in her something no one else did," Mehta writes.

In the book, Abhinav Kumar (former private secretary to Tharoor) reveals that amongst Sunanda’s many startling words were those revolving around her own political ambitions. She would stride into Tharoor’s office and say to his staff: ‘Do you think this joker will win the next election?’ or ‘I will get the BJP ticket from Kashmir and I will win’.