Growing up in the blue-collar Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, Elsa has always been the good daughter, helping her mom even when her troubled older sister and brother disappear. During her high school years, Elsa's life revolves around her home, where she shares caregiver duties for her profoundly disabled niece, who has been abandoned by her mother. Although she feels at times like she'll never escape her humble roots and hardscrabble neighborhood, her imagination is captured by a magazine photograph of refugees on the other side of the world. A chance encounter with an ER nurse convinces Elsa that, by becoming a nurse herself, she could have the chance to make a difference in the world.

Following nursing school and a year-long stint in a busy Boston hospital emergency room, Elsa applies for --- and is eventually accepted by --- the medical relief program Aide du Monde. But nothing she has encountered in her training or in Boston prepares her for what she finds in Afghanistan. September 11, 2001 has just passed, and Afghanistan is a country very much at war, suspicious of the UN and US troops even as they try to define what life after the Taliban will look and feel like. Elsa feels very young, inexperienced, and unsure of what lies ahead. But she gains confidence by packing an assortment of brightly colored lipsticks, which make her feel beautiful and self-assured even in the midst of abject poverty and brutal violence.

"LIPSTICK IN AFGHANISTAN vividly depicts a place and a way of life that will be both foreign and fascinating to many readers."

Elsa has been warned, for her own safety, not to fraternize with the army personnel stationed in her part of Afghanistan. But faced with few English speakers and nights of eating nothing but goat meat and rice, she is pleased when she strikes up a friendship --- and soon more --- with one of the soldiers. Diet Coke, comfortable conversation and romance help Elsa feel at ease even as she simultaneously becomes more emotionally and personally involved with the Afghan people she's there to serve.

Debut novelist Roberta Gately was herself a nurse and an aid worker in several developing countries, including Afghanistan. Her novel vividly shows the kinds of ethical conflicts and cultural complexities that go hand-in-hand with working in these parts of the world. Elsa's new boyfriend warns her against becoming too close with the native people, whom he has been taught to view as adversaries. But her strong spirit and trusting nature convince her time and again that the individuals she has met, particularly her new friend Parween (who coincidentally shares her affection for lipstick), need and deserve both her help and her friendship.

Although the lipstick conceit grows tiresome early on, LIPSTICK IN AFGHANISTAN vividly depicts a place and a way of life that will be both foreign and fascinating to many readers. Gately's description of the culture's traditions and of Elsa's attempt to integrate her life with theirs certainly illustrate the authority of the author's own experience. The personal relationships and cultural milieu explored here --- not to mention the extensive discussion questions and author interview included in the novel --- will make this an excellent choice for book club discussions.