The Henna Artist

The Henna Artist is a beautifully written and deeply moving story that celebrates resilience, hope, and the power of self-discovery. Alka Joshi brings 1950s Jaipur to life with such rich detail that I felt transported into its vibrant streets and colorful traditions. Lakshmi’s journey is both inspiring and heartwarming—her determination to build her own path, while caring deeply for others, makes her an unforgettable character. This novel left me uplifted and grateful, reminding me of the strength that lies within us all and the beauty of second chances.

The Henna Artist is about a woman struggling for independence and voice. Lakshmi is the first-person storyteller who was an accomplished henna artist and herbalist. Her story takes place during the 1950s in India after the country had gained independence, but women were still property. It is not historical fiction but rather an imagined history. Lakshmi left her husband Hari since he beat her, primarily for not having children. Leaving her arranged marriage meant that she also left her family and hometown. She had to reinvent herself and establish contacts where she had lacked the network of relatives from her formative years. Lakshmi, meaning goddess of wealth, employed a young boy named Malik to help her obtain supplies and move her business around to her clients. Malik is an endearing character who matures as the plot develops and portrays to Lakshmi, whom he calls "Aunty Boss," how to use relationships to one's advantage without taking advantage of people. I loved how he interacted with clients, women of a higher class. Privileged women appreciated Lakshmi's talents in painting their hands, feet, and other body parts with artistic personalized henna designs. She also peddled herbal contraceptives; for that business, she had men who purchased her sachets for their mistresses. Additionally, Lakshmi provides fertility and abortion treatments. Her many wealthy clients provide enough income for a house but also put her in precarious predicaments. Complicating her life, Lakshmi discovers she has a thirteen-year-old sister that she hadn't known existed. Since she had fled her family in the disgrace of divorce, she had not known her mother had another child. Her sister Radha shows up courtesy of her estranged husband, and Lakshmi becomes the teenager's guardian and experiences all the angst and responsibility that raising an adolescent brings. Her Life becomes even more entangled and complex as she endeavors to continue her business and try her hand at matchmaking. Though the story is sometimes unrealistic, this talented author delves into bloodlines, power and powerlessness, and caste. There are also poignant running themes about reputation and gossip. Then there is much related to ambition, skill, responsibility, betrayal, and moral grounds. This author is a great storyteller; she made her characters come alive and created a page-turner with this novel.

The Henna Artist Lakshmi, the narrator of this engaging and thoroughly enjoyable story, runs away from a forced and brutal marriage at age 15, to begin a new life in post-British1950’s India. Her skills, learned in her home village, eventually lead her to a respectable position as a henna artist painting her beautiful designs on the hands and feet of wealthy matron clients in Jaipur, a large city in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan. Lakshmi is also skilled in the ways of India’s traditional medicine, which she uses both for healing remedies and to free women from unwanted pregnancies. Radha, a younger sister she didn’t know she had, enters Lakshmi’s life after the death of their parents and their relationship develops in remarkably complex and telling ways. Lakshmi is a classic fictional character, a woman fiercely independent, conflicted with what is right and what is wrong, wringing herself out constantly in an effort to emerge better than she was the day before. To me, she is a powerful image of the human spirit down to its very core. How does such a woman deal with the men of her time that she meets up with along the way? Can Lakshmi resist the cultural patterns set for centuries establishing male-female/husband-wife relationships? Lakshmi is faced with these issues time and time again throughout the story. Her resolve and courage are tested with each encounter, for better or worse. Spiritualism in the 1950’s India and the forces balancing traditional and modern values are also replayed in the story time and time again, each with subtle variations on a theme. The caste system is interpreted by Ms. Joshi is a more gentle way than most accounts, especially lower castes, and many of the issues that faced India’s people during that period are not addressed. The partition of India and Pakistan and the troubles and prejudices that arose with the Muslim community who stayed behind in India after the partition are left untold, leaving the reader with a view of Joshi’s India that is perhaps more ideal than what history can reveal. But India portrayed by Ms. Joshi is indeed a wonderful place for a reader to find himself (I’m a male). Bursting with energy, insightful commentary on all manner of life and living. A remarkable display of the times and places that at once are unraveling and revealing themselves chapter by chapter (with interesting appendices on cultural and historical subjects to boot). It makes me want to get on the next flight from Newark Liberty to Jaipur and have my hands and feet painted by a henna artist. William Klein, PhD New York, NY May 30, 2020 Rating Five Stars

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi unfolds like a palm slowly opening—revealing lines of fate, pain, resilience, and hard-won freedom. It delicately unravels the fine, almost invisible threads that hold a woman’s life together in a world determined to tug them apart. Set in a society where women are raised to lean on men for survival, Joshi gives us a protagonist who dares to stand alone—and in doing so, walks on fragile ground. Her reputation is as easily smudged as fresh henna, and gossip trails her relentlessly, clinging like a second shadow. Forced into marriage at fifteen, stripped of choice and voice, she learns early that survival in an abusive, male-dominated world is not about comfort but endurance. More than a single woman’s story, this novel becomes a chorus. It lends its voice to countless women forced into child marriages, trapped in suffocating caste hierarchies, and ensnared by the calculated charm and trickery of exploitative men. Joshi exposes how power disguises itself as protection, how tradition is often weaponized, and how women are expected to bear the consequences in silence. As a henna artist myself, her struggles resonated with me deeply. Time may move forward, but minds often lag behind. A woman’s standing in society remains perilously delicate—one wrong turn, one whispered rumor, and everything she has built can fracture. Yet what makes this story luminous is not just suffering, but dignity. Despite obstacles in work, family, and love, she moves forward with grace and fierce self-respect—head held high, hands steady. She heals and soothes not only with her words, but through her presence—offering a shoulder to lean on, an attentive ear to women burdened with unspoken griefs. Through her art, henna becomes a language of care, Ayurvedic remedies a form of quiet restoration, and even her ingenious practice of hiding healing herbs in sweets and savories turns nourishment into comfort. Her creativity becomes both shield and sanctuary. The Henna Artist is a testament to feminine resilience, to art as survival, and to the quiet power of women who refuse to disappear. It lingers like the deep stain of henna—dark, beautiful, and impossible to erase.

This is a fabulous story, rich in interesting characters and textures. Humor and heart. It brought me back to India, and although set in the late 50s after the partition, there are many things which have not changed. You really get the feeling of how it is to struggle through the eyes of the main character, a henna artist who has escaped her abusive husband. The guilt, and family values, which she holds close to her heart throughout the book while trying desperately to carve out an independent life. I loved this book and it really transported me to another world. HOWEVER. What is WRONG with editors? Grammar, please! This book will have gone through several. A line editor. A proofreader too. The verb i"lay down" DOES NOT EXIST! Not even in "American" English. It is TO LIE DOWN in the present tense. You do NOT "lay down". You lay a table. A hen lays an egg. I LIE down. You LIE down He LIES down etc A LOAN is a noun. A loan. It is NOT a verb! A loan. To LEND. I do not "loan" a book. I LEND a book. Please editors (and authors) go back to your 101 writing class. It is an insult to take a beautiful book like this and cheapen it.

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi is a vivid look at life in India in the 50s and one woman's search for independence, and it has got to be one of the most stunning debuts I have ever read. This book is so rich in culture and imagery that I felt like I was there the entire time. The characters also felt entirely realistic, and I was a huge fan of Lakshmi and so many of the women in the novel. I was so sad when the book ended so I was incredibly excited to learn there are going to be two more books after this, AND that The Henna Artist is going to be a TV series. I ended up listening to the audio of the whole book and Sneha Mathan did such a stunning job narrating. Anyone who can narrate so many characters plus a bird so well is clearly going at the top of my list for narrators. While I do highly recommend doing the audio of The Henna Artist, I would also recommend having a copy of the book on hand as well. There are a lot of characters as well as a lot of terms I wasn't familiar with, so it was helpful to have a physical copy as it has a glossary of both terms and characters that appear in the book. The core of this book is about women, and I think there was so much to relate to as a woman, even if you aren't Indian. Plus there seemed to be a lot of similarities to other cultures as well, so this is a book you can read no matter where you are from. It was so enlightening to me, especially since I don't know a whole lot about India or the culture there. The Henna Artist is so complex and engrossing that I will definitely be recommending it to everyone, but especially those who are fans of historical and literary fiction. It was such a delight to read and I absolutely can't wait for the sequel!

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi is such a good and colorful book. The author's writing is so descriptive and the characters are well developed. This is a story about India and it's culture. I found this so descriptive and really liked that the author has a glossary with definitions of so much about India and a listing of all the characters and who they are (which is helpful). The main character is Lakshmi Shastri who has escaped an abusive arranged marriage and has been in hiding from her family and village so that he will not find her. Lakshimi doesn't even know that she has an younger sister Radha until she shows up on her door step with the abusive husband. Lakshimi has built a life as a very talented Henna artist in a very difficult culture for a single woman. This story brings you in from the very beginning and holds you until the very end. I am happy that book 2 has been written with the 3 in the series to debut next year! Be sure to read at the end a few chapters of the 2 nd book and also several chapters on many of the subjects of India! I can't wait to continue the journey from this great author! This book in part of the Reese Witherspoon book club.

The first part was intriguing and engaging. Not a masterpiece, but a good, enjoyable read. Life in India offers many opportunities for interesting prose. Then, it seems like the story lost its way. The flow of events became thin and not really interesting. Ideas started repeating themselves, and it looks like the ship didn't have a clear direction. Close to the midpoint, I resolved that it wasn't worth my time, and I quit.