Books Like The Henna Artist
Introduction: What Readers Mean by “Books Like The Henna Artist”
When readers ask for books like The Henna Artist, they are rarely asking for another historical novel. They are asking for something more specific: a woman who reinvents herself, a historical setting rendered in rich detail, and secrets that surface to threaten the life she has built. The Henna Artist (2020) has all three: Lakshmi, who flees an abusive marriage at seventeen, builds a life in 1950s Jaipur as the most sought-after henna artist to the wealthy women of the city - and then the husband she fled arrives with a daughter she never knew she had. The books that come closest are the ones that find their own way to the same combination.
This guide gathers the strongest readalikes, old and new, with honest content notes and a clear sense of what each book shares with Joshi’s novel and where it departs from it.
The Joshi Novels
The books that come closest to The Henna Artist are the author’s own continuations of the story.
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi (2021) is the essential companion: Lakshmi’s story continues, twelve years later, with the young man she raised now apprenticed at the Jaipur palace - and a mystery at the heart of the royal household. It shares The Henna Artist’s world and its cast, and it is the book that readers of the original discover next. Content note: an adult novel dealing with palace intrigue and class; for mature readers.
The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi (2023) is the essential companion completing the trilogy: Radha, Lakshmi’s sister, now living in Paris in the 1970s, balancing her family and her career as a perfumer - in the novel that brings the trilogy’s women to their resolutions. It is for readers who loved the characters and want the whole arc. Content note: an adult novel; for mature readers.
The Women of India
A second branch of the family is the novel of women in India and the region.
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (2006) is the essential companion about two Indian women across class: Sera, a middle-class widow, and Bhima, her servant, whose friendship of decades is tested by the secrets that finally surface. It shares The Henna Artist’s structure (the woman, the secrets, the life built and threatened) with the setting moved to contemporary Mumbai. Content note: an adult novel dealing with poverty, abuse and class; for mature readers.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007) is the essential companion about women’s endurance in the region: Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women joined by circumstance and war. It is the Henna Artist’s world (the women, the marriages, the endurance) with the stakes turned up to survival. Content note: an adult novel that includes domestic abuse and wartime violence; for mature readers.
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2008) is the essential companion about the woman at the center of the myth: the Mahabharata retold from the point of view of Draupadi - the fire-born princess, the wife of five husbands, the woman the epic revolves around. It shares The Henna Artist’s Indian setting and its woman at the center, with the scale raised to myth. Content note: an adult novel with some violence and sensuality; for mature readers.
The Reinvention and the Secrets
A third branch is the novel about the woman who reinvents herself and the past that arrives.
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali (2019) is the essential companion about the woman remaking her life after loss: Roya, who falls in love in Tehran in 1953, is separated from her love by the coup - and builds a life in America, until the past returns decades later. It shares The Henna Artist’s structure (the woman, the secrets, the past that arrives) with the love at the center. Content note: clean in the ordinary sense; appropriate for readers from around age fourteen upward.
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (2010) is the essential companion about the woman building a life against the world: Lavinia, an Irish orphan sold into servitude on a Virginia plantation, raised by the enslaved kitchen house family - in the novel of identity, secrets and the life made between worlds. It is the Henna Artist structure in the American South. Content note: an adult novel dealing with slavery and its cruelties; for mature readers.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (2018) is the essential companion about the woman who builds her own world: Kya, the “Marsh Girl,” abandoned by her family, raises herself in the North Carolina marsh - in the novel of the woman who makes herself, and the past that finally catches up. It shares The Henna Artist’s arc (the self-made woman, the secret, the trial) with a completely different setting. Content note: an adult novel dealing with abandonment and a murder trial, with some violence; for mature readers.
Themes and Values That Hold the Readalikes Together
Once you have read a few of these books side by side, the shared themes become clear, and they are worth naming because they are what make the category cohere.
The woman who makes herself runs through every one of them. The Henna Artist’s central arc - Lakshmi, who starts with nothing and builds a life, a name, a place - is the load-bearing structure of the whole family. Kya raises herself; Lavinia makes herself between worlds; Roya rebuilds in America; Draupadi is remade as a person. The books are united by the conviction that the making of the self is the story, and that the woman is the author.
The secrets that surface is the second shared value. The category is defined by the threat - the husband who arrives, the daughter who appears, the past that will not stay buried. The books agree that the life built on secrets is the life most threatened, and that the surfacing is the drama.
The rich historical setting is the third shared shape. The family is united by the world rendered in detail - the Jaipur of the maharajas, the Tehran of 1953, the plantation, the marsh - and by the conviction that the setting is not decoration but the pressure the woman must work against. The books agree that the period is the antagonist, and that the woman’s reinvention is the resistance.
One more theme is worth naming because it is the one that gives the genre its warmth: the women help each other. Lakshmi’s life is built on the women of Jaipur - the clients who trust her, the sister who arrives, the household she gathers - and the family keeps the theme: the servants and their mistresses in The Space Between Us, the women of the palace in The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, the sisters of the region’s endurance. The books agree that the woman’s reinvention is rarely solitary, that the helping hands are the machinery of the survival, and that the community of women is the quiet hero of the story.
What to Read Next Depends on Why You Loved It
If you loved the author, read The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris, which complete the trilogy.
If you loved the women of India, read The Space Between Us and A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Palace of Illusions for the myth.
If you loved the reinvention and the secrets, read The Stationery Shop and Where the Crawdads Sing.
If you loved the woman between worlds, read The Kitchen House.
Content Notes: What These Books Contain
The Henna Artist deals with marriage, abuse and family secrets, though with restraint, and is usually recommended for readers from around age fifteen upward. The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris are adult novels for mature readers. The Space Between Us deals with poverty and abuse; A Thousand Splendid Suns with domestic abuse and wartime violence; The Palace of Illusions has some violence and sensuality; The Kitchen House deals with slavery and its cruelties; Where the Crawdads Sing deals with abandonment and a murder trial. The Stationery Shop is the cleanest of the companions. None contain gratuitous content; the weight is thematic. Our best kindness and compassion reading list and our kindness and compassion themes and reading notes offer related reading paths for the questions of women, secrets and reinvention these books raise.
A Reading Plan for Book Clubs
The Henna Artist generates conversation on every level: the setting, the secrets, the question of what Lakshmi owes the daughter she never knew and the life she built. Some of the best discussion questions come from pairing it with a book that shares or challenges it: read it with The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and ask how the world deepens across the trilogy; read it with The Space Between Us, and compare the two women’s India; read it with Where the Crawdads Sing, and ask whether the self-made woman is the same in both.
A second kind of question turns the discussion toward the choices: what does Lakshmi owe the daughter she never knew, and what does she owe the life she built? The Henna Artist works best in a club because the secrets are shared - the group knows what the characters do not, and the watching is the tension.
Conclusion: The Henna That Keeps Giving
The Henna Artist endures because it is about something permanent: the conviction that the woman who makes herself is the story, that the secrets threaten the life, and that the setting is the pressure she works against. Every book on this list takes one piece of that - the author, the women, the reinvention, the world - and builds its own account around it. The joy of reading them is the joy of watching the same life built in different countries, different centuries, different registers. Start with whichever part of Lakshmi’s story you loved most, and let the comparison teach you what the reinvention is really made of. For the full collection of reading paths, start at the Ideas section of our site.
