The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi tells of an Indian girl in the 1950’s escaping and abusive arranged marriage and making her way alone to Jaipur to become a henna artist for the wealthy ladies in the city. Lakshmi overcomes so many challenges to make it on her own and when she is finally about to finish building a home of her own, a younger sister she didn’t know she had left behind shows up and turns her world upside down.

Joshi explores family, caste and gender inequality in this book; it is also a coming of age story for Lakshmi, her sister, and also India during a time of newly gained independence. I was fully transported to Rajasthan. A great debut novel, well written and rich in details.