Daughters of the Pink City: A Novel by Alka Joshi (Hardcover) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Historical - World Literature - India 

RELEASE DATE: 3/2/2027 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)

"A treasure of a novel about family, loyalty, and the cost of pursuing one’s dreams… Spellbinding." —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

A richly woven coming-of-age novel about family secrets, rebellion, and the inheritance of women’s resilience.

Sixteen-year-old Deepa lives under the weight of her family’s expectations. After her mother’s sudden disappearance, she and her younger brother Avi are sent to live with their strict grandparents in Jaipur, where tradition rules and freedom feels out of reach. Everything changes when Deepa discovers kathak, an ancient dance that offers her liberation, and a hint of her mother’s mysterious past.

Secretly learning kathak from a courtesan, Deepa risks everything to pursue her passion, defying her family’s rules and rigid societal norms. As she loses herself in dance, she uncovers long-buried family secrets—whispers of forbidden love, betrayal, and a legacy of resilience passed through generations of women. When her lessons are discovered, she must choose: the path laid out for her or the life—and art—that sets her soul on fire. Set against colonial India, this is a story of art, rebellion, and the bond between mothers and daughters.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Born in India and raised in the U.S. since she was nine, Alka Joshi has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts. Joshi's debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a NYT bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub pick, was Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, & is in development at Netflix as a TV series. The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (2021) and The Perfumist of Paris (2023) completed the Jaipur Trilogy . Her fourth novel, Six Days in Bombay, will be released in February 2025. She is currently working on her fifth novel. In 2024, Joshi was selected for the Forbes 50 over 50 List, celebrating women who are shattering age and gender norms across all sectors of the American economy and culture.

Review Quotes:
"Another beautiful book by the incredible Alka Joshi, who has an extraordinary talent for bringing India vibrantly alive on the page. Daughters of the Pink City is bursting with the culture, food, language and dance of post-World War I India as it follows the story of a young woman named Deepa who finds her inner strength--and her innate ability as a Kathak dancer--during a tumultuous period in Jaipur. Deeply moving, vibrantly written, and meticulously researched, Daughters of the Pink City is a true delight." --New York Times bestselling author Kristin Harmel

"Alka Joshi is a marvel! Her newest novel follows sixteen-year-old Deepa and her little brother, whose lives are upended when their mother vanishes and their father abandons them to the care of their profligate, uncaring grandparents in tradition-bound Jaipur. Deepa finds joy in kathak, an ancient dance tradition forbidden to girls in colonial India, and her pursuit of her art leads her to a network of women negotiating independence within the rigid rules that govern their lives: an outwardly meek daughter-in-law quietly seeking freedom from a sham marriage, a school friend boldly pursuing a forbidden passion, and Deepa's own vanished mother whose story is far from over. Daughters of the Pink City is an inspiration, showing the quiet ways in which women of the past have always sought purpose, passion, and independence." --Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Briar Club

"Deepa, a girl growing up in pre-Independence India, dreams of learning kathak -- the forbidden storytelling dance of goddesses and courtesans, of devotion and rebellion, and most of all, the dance of freedom. But to do so, she must overcome the silence of her mother, the cruelty of her guardians, and the opposition of an entire society. Daughters of the Pink City is a luminous and fiercely tender novel of the lengths a daughter will go -- that we all must go -- to pursue her passion." --Shobha Rao, author of Indian Country and Girls Burn Brighter

" Daughters of the Pink City is an enthralling, beautifully wrought novel-- a virtuosic exploration of family secrets and the traumas of loss, and a moving portrait of a young woman's courage as she defies society and tradition to reclaim her life." --Patmeena Sabit, author of Good People