‘Downton Abbey’ heads East

After Bay Area author Alka Joshi moved to the United States from India at age 9, she quickly learned that Americans were mostly exposed to negative narratives about her birth country, often told from the perspective of British expats lamenting the end of colonial rule.

Joshi hoped to expand readers’ understanding with her 2020 best-selling novel, “The Henna Artist” (Mira Books), which portrays India in its post-independence exuberance.

The book was inspired by Joshi’s mother and set in 1955, the year her parents married. The novel follows 17-year-old Lakshmi, who leaves an abusive marriage and makes her way alone to Jaipur, the picturesque “Pink City,” where she becomes a henna artist and confidante to women in the city’s social elite, including royalty.

Joshi’s lyrical writing about class, family, romance and female empowerment captured the attention of Reese Witherspoon for her May 2020 Book Club pick. Indian star Freida Pinto will play Lakshmi in a limited series set to begin filming in early 2023. The series’ executive producer, Michael Edelstein, has said that Joshi’s multilayered storytelling could make her tales an Indian version of “Downton Abbey.”

“The Secret Keeper of Jaipur,” the second book in the Stanford alum’s “Jaipur Trilogy,” picks up Lakshmi’s story in 1969, with mystery and intrigue swirling around everything from Bollywood glamour and Himalayan gold smuggling to the ancient arts of healing.

QFreida Pinto has said she likes your books because they give a picture of Indian life Americans don’t often see. How was that important to you?

AI largely wrote “The Henna Artist” as an alternative life my mother would have had, in the sense that Lakshmi forges her own path. Women in India are very resilient. They will always try to find the happiness they desire.

What also was very important for me was to inform the world about what normal living was all about in 1955 or 1969. I want people to understand this phase

Five book picks from Joshi

Q&A BY MARTHA ROSS

of Indian history, how people feel after 200 years of domination, that they finally had a chance to have the country back in their own hands.

QWhat else was important to you?

AI got the chance to talk about the literary scene. Bring in boarding schools in India that were catering to young, wealthy kids, who were dancing to Elvis Presley and listening to the same rock and roll that people across the world were listening to. I wanted to explore the ancient art of henna. I also wanted to deal with the casteism, colorism and classism that still exist today.

QYou’ve mentioned a road trip to Idaho with your husband, fiction writer Bradley Jay Owens, launched your writing career ...

ATo entertain my husband, I started telling him stories about India. He said, “Why don’t you write those down?” It wasn’t until I was 51 that I started listening to him.

QWe’re talking the same week you’re off to Paris to research book No. 3. What do you hope to learn there?

Pacific Grove author Alka Joshi has just published a sequel to her best-selling novel, “The Henna Artist.”

ARadha (Lakshmi’s younger sister) is in the fragrance industry in 1974 Paris. I’ll be doing all this research into designers. And, of course, I’ll write about French and Indian food. Food is such a big part of our lives. It informs so much about culture.

QIndeed, “The Secret Keeper of Jaipur” offers recipes at the end for a curried vegetable dish and a Maharani Cocktail for one of the book’s characters.

AMy older brother helped design (the cocktail). He’s the family mixologist. I asked if he’d design this cocktail for the older maharani who likes to water her orchids with gin.