New Books Network Interview: Alka Joshi

Until I read Alka Joshi’s new novel, Six Days in Bombay, I had never heard of the Hungarian-Indian avant-garde painter Amrita Sher-Gil. I’m guessing many of you don’t know about her either. Born in Budapest in 1913, she trained in Paris, moved to India in 1934, and married her first cousin three years later. In 1941, at the age of twenty-eight, she slipped into a coma and died after a few days in the hospital. The cause of death has never been ascertained, although proposed explanations range from a botched abortion to premeditated murder. And if that’s not enough material for a novel, I can’t imagine what would be. Listen to my latest New Books Network interview with Alka Joshi to find out more.

As usual, the rest of this post comes from New Books in Historical Fiction.

Sona Falstaff, a hospital nurse in Bombay, has things more or less where she wants them. Yes, she faces a certain discrimination, positive and negative, because of her mixed heritage, which makes her a “half-half” in the lingo of 1930s India. She lives in a poor section of the city, and she must work to support herself and her aging mother. India itself is a state of flux as the British Raj comes to an end and demands for independence increase in intensity and volume. But all in all, Sona wants nothing more than to cling to the job and the life she knows.

Amrita Sher-Gil with three of her paintings (1930)

Yet when the painter Mira Novak is admitted to the hospital, she upends Sona’s carefully constructed world. Mira’s vibrancy, passion, and generosity awaken a yearning to explore that Sona didn’t even know she had. But just as she begins to cherish the possibility of friendship, Mira dies, six days after entering the hospital. The job Sona loves is threatened by suspicion that she somehow contributed to the painter’s death.

Group of Three Girls, by Amrita Sher-Gil (1935)

Sona soon discovers that Mira has left her a set of four paintings with instructions to deliver them to their rightful owners. Now she faces a choice: fight for her job and play it safe at home, or take a chance on finding her true self in the wider world, whatever risk that involves?

The contrast between Sona and Mira, the friendship that develops between them, and the slowly revealed history that lies beneath Sona’s reluctance to take chances are all beautifully laid out in this well-written novel, making it a delight to read.

Photograph of Amrita Sher-Gil in Paris, 1930, and Group of Three Girls (1935) by Amrita Sher-Gil public domain via Wikimedia Commons.