New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi has done it again with The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. A sequel to her award winning debut novel The Henna Artist, Alka takes us on a journey with Malik. A street child in her previous novel, Malik is now a grown man living a life among the wealthy. As with The Henna Artist, Alka explores the culture among the classes in India.
What I found interesting was exploring how the same people who used to know him as a kid now treat him differently. How differently do they treat him? What is their reaction to him?
The Henna Artist was released in March, 2020. It was a Reese Witherspoon Hello Sunshine Book Cluck pick and on the New York Times bestseller list. It is currently a Miramax TV project starring Freida Pinto. The Secret Keeper of Jaipur is the second in what will be a trilogy.
Alka Joshi is a graduate of Stanford University and received her MFA from the California College of the Arts. She has worked as an advertising copywriter, a marketing consultant and an illustrator. Alka was born in India, in the state of Rajasthan. Her family moved to the USA when she was nine, and she now lives on California’s Monterey Peninsula with her husband and two misbehaving pups.
A fascinating conversation with Alka Joshi
- Revisiting our first conversation and the release of The Henna Artist in May of 2020
- Alka’s mom’s life reimagined and Lakshmi
- The realization of being an author
- Her father and his role
- The characters coming to life
- External and internal changes
- Exploring the culture
- Navigating through the pandemic and 400+ virtual book clubs
- Finding her tribe
- The effect on so many women
- Next in what will be the third of the trilogy