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.