When Lakshmi arrives in Jaiper as a seventeen year old domestic abuse survivor, she has nothing but her hands to help her make a livelihood. With her knowledge and some resourcefulness, Lakshmi creates a thriving artistic business, working henna drawings on the skin of the wealthy ladies in the city as well as offering her own healing and beauty products. As she becomes more trusted in wealthy circles, Lakshmi feels like she is truly on the edge of the life she has dreamed of for herself and then, out of the blue, she has a visitor that is going to change everything.
Life in 1950s India was a complicated and intricate dance unless you were a wealthy man of the right caste. The rules for behavior and societal interactions affected every choice Lakshmi had to make and for women, especially, even the tiniest choice could have truly unfair and lasting consequences. This story read really quickly for me as I invested in Lakshmi and her capabilities as a single woman and business owner. The relationships in this book are a big part of what moves the story along and the vast inequalities between the rich and poor are so stark and richly drawn. I did guess one of the major plot points rather early on but I still was eager to find out the end of Lakshmi‘s story. I was glad that I listened to the audiobook so that the author could read all of the many unfamiliar words and phrases to me. While some of the names were hard for me to keep sorted in my head, I really appreciated the time I spent in Lakshmi’s Jaiper.
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