Join a book club that is reading Six Days in Bombay: A continent-spanning historical novel of friendship, identity, and mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist!
Six Days in Bombay: A continent-spanning historical novel of friendship, identity, and mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist
"A sparkling travelogue and a poignant journey of self-discovery all in one. . . . Alka Joshi is simply the best!" --Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Rose Code
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist, this sweeping novel of identity and self-discovery takes readers from Bombay to Prague, Florence, Paris and London, to uncover the mystery behind a famous painter's death.
When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and her nurse, Sona, is excited to learn more about the vivacious artist who shares her half-Indian identity. Sona, yearning for a larger life, finds herself carried away by Mira's stories of her travels and exploits and is shocked by accounts of the many lovers the painter has left scattered throughout Europe. When Mira dies quite suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion, and her quiet life is upended.
The key to proving Sona's innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman on a mission to visit the painter's former friends and lovers across a tumultuous Europe teetering toward war. On the precipice of discovering her own identity, Sona learns that the painter's charming facade hid a far more complicated, troubled soul.
In her first stand-alone novel since her bestselling debut, The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi uses the life of painter Amrita Sher-Gil, the "Frida Kahlo of India," as inspiration for the story's beginning to explore how far we'll travel to determine where we truly belong.
Discover more novels from Alka Joshi:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist, this sweeping novel of identity and self-discovery takes readers from Bombay to Prague, Florence, Paris and London, to uncover the mystery behind a famous painter's death.
When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and her nurse, Sona, is excited to learn more about the vivacious artist who shares her half-Indian identity. Sona, yearning for a larger life, finds herself carried away by Mira's stories of her travels and exploits and is shocked by accounts of the many lovers the painter has left scattered throughout Europe. When Mira dies quite suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion, and her quiet life is upended.
The key to proving Sona's innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman on a mission to visit the painter's former friends and lovers across a tumultuous Europe teetering toward war. On the precipice of discovering her own identity, Sona learns that the painter's charming facade hid a far more complicated, troubled soul.
In her first stand-alone novel since her bestselling debut, The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi uses the life of painter Amrita Sher-Gil, the "Frida Kahlo of India," as inspiration for the story's beginning to explore how far we'll travel to determine where we truly belong.
Discover more novels from Alka Joshi:
- THE HENNA ARTIST
- THE SECRET KEEPER OF JAIPUR
- THE PERFUMIST OF PARIS
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Community Reviews
“I was Miss Novak’s nurse. She took ill in Bombay. I’m afraid she did not live more than six days.” For six days in Bombay, “I knew her, she and I talked as if we'd known each other forever. Like we were sisters. She was so worldly, something I was in awe of-and envious of. I loved the way she seemed to move through life…Being bedridden had forced her to slow down, to reflect on her life and share confidences, regrets and memories about those closest to her. And I'd been there to listen, happily. The six days with her had felt elastic. As if we'd known each other for years.”
“Miss Novak left these paintings in my care along with this note…The initials on the paintings match the names in the note…They're people who mattered to Miss Novak. A lifelong girlfriend. A former painting tutor. Her art dealer. I think I'm meant to deliver these paintings to their new owners. And they may tell me things about her I don't yet know or need to know in order to exonerate myself…Petra is in Prague. Josephine is in Paris. And Paolo is in Florence.”
Situated in the climate of 1937 when resistance movements were bubbling under the surface throughout Europe and India, Six Days in Bombay takes the reader on a journey through Prague, Paris, Florence, Istanbul, London and Bombay and invites readers to ask, What if what you find isn't what you expected?
Mira Novak “was charming. She was bright. She was generous. But you only knew her for six days. The deeper you delve into her past relationships, you may encounter versions of her that surprise you. Versions that may confuse you…people are not always what they seem, my dear."
“There seemed to be many different Miras. I had known several versions of her. Mira the painter. Mira the patient. Mira the lover…Somehow, even after all I'd learned about her in Europe the betrayals, the slights, the lies, the abuses—I could only see Mira as the girl who loved art and books and music and painted things greater than herself, than all of us. She was not as sure of herself as I'd thought, as I'd wanted to think. I needed a heroine, and she became mine.” Alka Joshi’s Six Days in Bombay is a masterpiece!
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