Reviews
Praise for The Henna Artist
“[An] eloquent debut…Joshi’s evocative descriptions capture India’s sensory ambience (horse-drawn tongas, pungent cooking fires and incense, and colorful saris), drawing readers deep into her moving story. Joshi masterfully balances
a yearning for self-discovery with the need for familial love.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An uplifting tale that highlights the power of family”
—Library Journal
“The Henna Artist” is an amiable and entertaining debut novel about an important theme — balancing family with personal ambition —
that allows readers to escape into a fantasy teeming with sensory pleasure.
—San Francisco Chronicle
Alka Joshi’s debut novel, exposes a society hobbled by a rigid caste system, misogyny, superstition and age-old traditions. The smell of sandalwood, cooking fires, and tropical flowers wafts through it all, but the injustice and poverty are all but inescapable.
—Booktrib
Alka Joshi’s culturally rich debut novel sweeps you back to 1950s post-indepen- dence India. Henna artist and herbal healer Lakshmi Shastri is determined to get ahead, but her past might trip her up. Vibrant characters, evocative imagery,
and sumptuous prose create a satisfying, unforgettable tale.
—The Christian Science Monitor
"Alka Joshi’s debut novel is so evocative, so expressive and so exotic that it leads me to suggest she drop whatever else she is doing
and write a second novel — like now."
—The Calgary Herald
"Joshi has constructed a bewitching glimpse into the not-so-distant past with a tough heroine well worth cheering on."
—Booklist
"The mind behind one of the season’s most buzzed-over works of fiction — tapped as a selection for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club,
climbing bestseller lists everywhere — “The Henna Artist” jets us to the pink city of Jaipur during the 1950s,
set in the throes of a newly independent India.
—Toronto Star