Alka Joshi: The Henna Artist w/ Anita Amirrezvani

Join us for an event with Alka Joshi, your favorite new novelist, in conversation with Anita Amirrezvani. We know you’ll love Alka’s debut, The Henna Artist, as much as we do. Beautiful and compellingly readable, The Henna Artist evokes post-Raj 1950s Jaipur while completely enmeshing you in the conflicts that drive the protagonist Lakshmi Shastri. Against all odds, and after fleeing an arranged marriage as a fifteen-year-old to an abusive older man, Lakshmi carves out a living for herself as a henna artist, friend, and confidante to wealthy, upper-caste women. But in an exciting twist, all she’s built threatens to unravel.

More than just a romantic work of historical fiction, The Henna Artist is based off Alka’s late mother’s life, only this story serves as a reimagining of what life might have been like if Alka’s mother hadn’t been in an arranged marriage at 18, with three children by 21. Instead, the novel recreates her life as if she had been able to pursue the independence and education that she never enjoyed in real life. The independence and education that Alka’s mother advocated for her.

Alka will be joined by Anita Amirrezvani, author of the novels The Blood of Flowers and Equal of the Sun.

If you are a guest attending this event and require disability accommodations, please contact events@keplers.org at your earliest possible convenience, with at least two weeks’ notice for CART or ASL translation services. Please include the name and ticket type through which your seats were reserved, the number of guests attending, and complete information about the accommodations needed, along with a contact number at which you can be reached.

Tickets to Kepler’s Literary Foundation events are not tax-deductible. Tax deductible donations can be made online at keplers.org/donate

Photo of Alka Joshi by Garry Bailey. .