First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if, instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

The Rules:

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
• Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

“Mira winced as a spasm of pain shot through her. I put my palm on her forehead. Her skin was burning, like a jalebi fresh from a pot of boiling oil. Grabbing a cotton towel from a stack by her bedside, I wet it in her water glass and pressed it to her forehead. The wrinkles on her forehead slowly eased. She let out a sigh. ‘What about the baby?’ she asked, her speech slurred.”

How is it that one paragraph can leave me with so many questions? Questions like, who is Mira? What happened to her? Is the baby okay? The only thing I know right now is that I can’t wait to dive deeper into the book.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is an upcoming standalone historical fiction.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by Alka Joshi.

The First Lines Friday book is:

Six Days in Bombay.

About the Book:

• Title: Six Days in Bombay
• Author: Alka Joshi
• Page Length: 352 pages
• Publication Date: April 15, 2025
• Publisher: MIRA

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE HENNA ARTIST, this sweeping novel follows a young Anglo-Indian nurse who embarks on a journey from her home in Bombay, through Prague, Florence, Paris, and London, to uncover a mystery and prove her innocence after a famous painter dies in her care.

When renouned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she’s expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity, even if that’s where their similarities end. Sona is enraptured by Mira’s stories of her travels, and shocked by accounts of the many lovers she’s left scattered through Europe. Over the course of a week, Mira befriends Sona, seeing in her something bigger than the small life she’s living with her mother. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party where all of Bombay society. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion.

Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn’t know she was going to die? The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings—the first to Petra, Mira’s childhood friend and first love in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira’s history, she learns that the charming facade she’d come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself?

Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history and the English father who deserted her and her mother in India so many years ago. In the end, she’ll discover that we are all made up of pieces, and only by seeing the world do we learn to see ourselves.

Links: Goodreads     

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase through my links.