"Friendship and Love to be found in war-torn Afghanistan"
Reviewed by Sharon Galligar Chance
Posted February 4, 2011
Women's Fiction
For Elsa Murphy, life growing up in her working-class
neighborhood had never been easy, but a single swipe of
lipstick could give her the confidence and courage she
needed to rise up and become the woman she was meant to be,
and that woman would be among the bold who would make a
difference to the people of war-torn Afghanistan. Roberta Gately's debut novel, LIPSTICK IN AFGHANISTAN, is
the fictionalized accounting of one woman's unselfish
devotion to her job as a nurse in a small mountain village
in remote Afghanistan. When packing for her assignment for Aide du Monde, Elsa
made sure she included several tubes of the lipstick that
gave her poise and bravery, never dreaming how important
those simple tubes of color was would change so many
lives. Elsa trained as an emergency room nurse in Boston, but
nothing could have prepared her for the devastation she
would encounter in the small village of Bamiyan,
Afghanistan. Thrust into the job of managing the small
medical clinic and supervising two local doctors, Elsa
would soon learn to love the humble people who needed her
care. She makes fast friends with local resident Parween, a
young widow who bonds with the young American nurse over
their love of lipstick and their overwhelming desire to
make things better around them. Elsa also finds love in the
form of Mike, a handsome American Special Forces solider,
who is a part of the unit that has been assigned to protect
Bamiyan from the Taliban. As the war rages around them, all three lives will be
changed through love, friendship and understanding, but all
three would experience tragedy as well in a beautiful land
torn apart by war. Roberta Gately tells the story of Afghanistan in two voices
with this fascinating, heart-wrenching novel. She presents
Elsa's story as an impoverished child who longs to make a
difference in the world after seeing a magazine story about
the genocide in Rwanda. Gately also tells Parween's story as a charming young girl
who marries young, is widowed young and desperately wants
to keep her family safe from the evil influences of the
Taliban. As their stories intersect, readers will be
enthralled with the differences and similarities between
the two young women in this fast-paced story.
SUMMARY
Gripped by haunting magazine images of starving refugees,
Elsa has dreamed of becoming a nurse since she was a
teenager, of leaving her humble working-class Boston
neighborhood to help people whose lives are far more
difficult than her own. No one in her family has ever
escaped poverty, but Elsa has a secret weapon: a tube of
lipstick she found in her older sister’s bureau. Wearing it
never fails to raise her spirits and bolster her confidence.
With lipstick on, she can do anything—even travel alone to
war-torn Afghanistan in the wake of September 11. Violent nights as an emergency room nurse in Boston did not
prepare Elsa for the devastation she witnesses at the small
medical clinic she runs in Bamiyan. As she struggles to
prove herself in the male-dominated culture, a tube of
lipstick she finds in the aftermath of a tragic bus bombing
leads her to a life-changing friendship with Parween, a
young woman who has lost her adored young husband to the
Taliban’s treachery. In Parween, Elsa finds a kindred
spirit, fiery, generous, and determined to fight back
against the restrictions that plague the women of her small
country. Together, they risk their lives to rebel against the Taliban
and bring opportunity to the people of their village. But
when they must stand up and fight for their own survival,
Elsa discovers her only hope is to unveil the warrior within.
ExcerptPrologue Afghanistan, 2002 “Do you hear it?” The voice was almost a whisper.
Elsa held her breath, and then she heard it too, a faint
rustling
of footsteps over twigs and leaves. Out of the corner of her
eye,
she glimpsed several shadowy figures darting through the
trees, and
when she turned, she saw a glint of sunlight reflecting off
the barrel
of an assault rifle. There was no denying it—the Taliban had found them.
Oh, Jesus! she thought. We’ll never escape. Elsa knew the Taliban’s ruthless hatred; the death and
destruction
they wrought was undeniable. Seized by a sickening wave of fear, she wanted to cry or throw
up, but there was no time. She tried to catch Parween’s eye,
but her
friend was looking back, intent on fi nding the source of
the sound. “Run!” someone shouted, and suddenly, the chase was on. But not for Elsa. Her legs were tangled in the fabric of her
allenveloping
burqa. She struggled to free herself and fi nally threw off
the covering and ran, her plastic shoes barely touching the
ground.
She’d never run so fast before, and her heart pounded as she
swallowed
air in great gulps. She heard heavy panting. Was it her own? Her chest tightened, and a scream rose in her throat, but there
was no sound. She couldn’t think clearly. She knew only that she
didn’t want to die there in Afghanistan. Oh, God, let us make it, she prayed. Just ahead was a small house, and though unprotected by the
walls that surrounded typical Afghani homes, it was their
only hope.
If they could reach it in time. But the distance seemed too
great
and her sprint too slow. Still, she pushed on, her arms pumping
wildly. After what seemed an eternity, Elsa and the others reached the
house. She turned and stopped dead in her tracks. A growing
sense
of panic washed over her. Parween. Her eyes swept the horizon, but there was no sign of her friend.
Elsa’s throat burned as she tried to catch her breath, and
she felt
as though her heart would explode in her chest. She buried her face in her hands. How had it all gone so wrong? What were they doing here?
What was she doing here? A nurse from Boston in fucking Afghanistan, for Christ’s sake.
Hot tears stung her eyes. With trembling hands, she tried to
wipe
them away. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “Where are you, Parween?”
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