The DiwaLit episode, with Alka Joshi

In this episode, the Boundless Book Club celebrates Diwali with Tamreez Inam, the Emirates LitFest's head of programming, joining Andrea to talk about a few books by Indian authors.

Alka Joshi, author of The Henna Artist, joins the conversation to talk about her book coming to Netflix, the importance of representation in the writer's room, and how a career in advertising has helped the fiction writing process.

Books and authors in this episode:

A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

A fully engrossing marriage plot set in 1950s India, with hints of Austen.

The Dying Day, by Vaseem Khan

India's first female police officer is on the trail of a missing priceless manuscript, with a trail of bodies, cryptic clues, constant sexism and a heart of darkness.

The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi

Delicious escapism when seventeen-year-old Lakshmi escapes her marriage and becomes a successful henna artist in 1950s pink city of Jaipur.

About us:

Andrea Gissdal is the Head of Communications and Marketing for the Emirates Literature Foundation. From a voracious and indiscriminate reader as a child, to a part time bookseller as a student, as an adult she has become a literary omnivore but with a preference for fiction. She also dabbles in creative writing, and has a penchant for Scrabble.

Annabelle Corton is the English Programme Manager at the Emirates Literature Foundation. She runs the Festival Book Club and has a background in guesting and presenting on talk radio shows about various literary topics. She likes words like ‘equinox’ and ‘vespa’, and loves a good pun. She’ll read anything in reach, but has a fondness for witty tussles of good vs. evil on page and screen, especially vampire fiction where a great deal is at stake. Get it? Stake? ….She’s not sorry.