Six Days In Bombay - Blog Tour

 

Author: Alka Joshi

Publisher: Harper 360 UK 

Publishing Date: 8th May 2025 

Many thanks to the publishing team and Random Things Tour for my physical copy of the book and a spot on the blog tour

Blurb 

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.

My Thoughts 

How stunning is the cover. And having read The Henna Artist I was already a fan of the author so this was an amazing opportunity to read and review. 

The blurb provides a lot of detail of what will happen within the book , however we do go deeper into the plot and the dots start to connect.  We are transported back to 1937 where we meet Sona and Mira. They both become friends in unlikely and sad circumstances but little did they know their friendship will also end on even sadder terms and consequences. 

For Sona who has lived a different and less active life than Mira, but upon Mira's last request Sona goes travelling where she not only learns more about Mira but also about herself. 

The book weaves through time as Sona travel through Europe delivering these paintings. The author explores that themes of politics at the time with Europe and India and WW2. The characters are rich in-developing the plot which extended to friendship. identity , love, self discovery, women's rights and belonging in the world. 

This was a historical fictional book with romance and friends being the heart of its tale. I Would recommend reading it.