The Henna Artist

 by Alka Joshi

This books has been on the Best Seller and Best Books of the Year lists for the past year.  It is about a young Indian woman, Lakshmi who has escaped an abusive marriage and made a life for herself as a Henna Artist in the city of Jaipur.  She knew she had shamed her family but sent them money.  She did not know her mother burned the letters without looking inside.  Unbeknownst to Lakshmi her Mother gave birth to another daughter after she left home.  She had hoped to build a home in Jaipur and have her family come live with them.  However both her parents have died leaving her young teenage sister Radha an orphan.  Radha is tormented by the locals who believe she has a curse on her.

Radha someone finds Lakshmi's estranged husband and they are able to find her in Jaipur.   Lakshmi is surprised to find she has a sister and terrified that her husband has found her.  He demands money from her and she feels he will keep coming after her for more.

Lakshmi is building a lovely house for herself and plans on expanding into being a matchmaker and she almost achieves this but then her wayward sister gets pregnant by the son of one of her influential clients.  Lakshmi had also gotten an in with the palace through helping heal the spirits of the Head man's wife.  However her reputation is ruined, all her clients make excuses for abandoning her.  Lakshmi has people hounding her for payment and goes the the husband of her influential client.  He likes her as she has given him some medicines in the past to help his mistresses not get pregnant or miscarry.  He agrees to give her the money but his wife finds out and is even more furious with her.

Lakshmi's husband eventually finds a role helping out the prostitutes that live in the city and stops bothering her.

Lakshmi cooks a plan to have the palace adopt her nephew when he is born but her sister refuses to give up the baby.  She and her sister go to a town in the country with a friend/relative who is also pregnant.  The friend loses her baby and Radha decides she does not want her baby adopted by the palace but rather by their family friend.

In the end Lakshmi decides to stay in the little village as her medicinal knowledge and skills are appreciated there. 

It was an interesting story.  The main character was so hardworking and scheming but it all fell apart for her.  It certainly kept you interested.  She did a great job of portraying the lives of the rich and poor, the gossipy nature of the rich women and how hard Lakshmi had to work to keep her customers happy.