Alka Joshi's evocative fourth novel, Six Days in Bombay, is a nuanced exploration of selfhood and a vibrant portrait of interwar Europe.
Anglo Indian nurse Sona Falstaff enjoys interacting with her patients at a Bombay hospital. When painter Mira Novak comes under Sona's care, Sona is dazzled by Mira's charisma and her stories about travel, art, and music. But when Mira dies, Sona is blamed and let go from her job. Determined to prove her innocence, Sona sets out for Europe, carrying four of Mira's paintings and searching for answers regarding Mira's death.
Joshi (The Perfumist of Paris) sensitively explores the gender dynamics of 1930s India, where women lived under various constraints, and Sona's struggle as a person of mixed parentage who draws notice and often judgment. Joshi's portrayal of Sona's mother, who once loved and lost a British soldier, is especially poignant. As Sona crosses Europe, she visits Prague, Paris, and Florence, and meets with Mira's friends and past lovers. She encounters women who are building lives on their own terms and gains greater (if often uncomfortable) insight into the complicated woman who charmed her. Reckoning with her fresh grief and her longstanding resentment of her absent father, Sona must decide what shape her future will take, and how brave she is willing to be.
Combining cinematic descriptions of European travel with an intimate inner journey toward healing, Six Days in Bombay is a captivating account of one woman's search for her own identity. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams