Book Review: Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

ARC Book Review: Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

Six Days in Bombay is set in the 1930’s Bombay, India and centers on Sona, a young night nurse at the local hospital, who looks after a wealthy patient who turns out to be a famed artist. Sona begins to form a friendship with the artist and that sets the story up.

Sona is half British and half Indian and her lineage frames the backdrop of India’s independence and the prejudices of the period which are tightly woven into the narrative.

When Sona is left with a legacy of a patient (purposefully vague to avoid spoilers), and other events compel her to leave Bombay, she sets off on part adventure, part pilgrimage, part journey of self-discovery to Istanbul, Paris, Prague, Florence, and ultimately London to find her father.

There are deeply threaded themes throughout, and a glimmer of romance as Sona explores forgiveness on multiple levels as well as what it means to belong.

As expected Alka Joshi’s descriptions are lush and vivid, transporting the reader to another place and time. I appreciated the epistolary elements as another layer of interest in the storyline. Six Days in Bombay will be loved by Joshi's fans and any historical fiction reader.

Also don’t miss the author’s note at the end explaining how the artist patient was inspired by Hungarian–Indian avant-garde female artist Amrita Sher-Gil.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Mira Books for the advance reading copy.