Yasmine and the Americans - Paperback

This vivid epic novel from the author of The Strangest of Fruit is set in India in World War II. Yasmine Khan is the fiery proprietor of The Bombay Duck, a nightclub with live music and dancing, catering to the American troops stationed in Calcutta. Yasmine moves in a leadership unusual for a woman of her community, and she takes absolute responsibility for her staff, most of whom live with her at the Duck. She pushes the limits of her wits and determination to provide for her makeshift family in a time of scarcity and imminent danger.

Yasmine succeeds by keeping her emotions in check and playing her cards close to the vest, until she meets a man who completely disrupts her strategy and composure. Shocked at herself, she falls in love. This American soldier is brash and conflicted, navigating his own difficult path of leadership in a strange land under turbulent circumstances. Could he imagine his life with a firebrand like Yasmine? Should he return out of duty to his home in the U.S.? Will he even survive combat?

Patience, Yasmine's childhood friend, is a glamorous, flirtatious diva with a voice like a bird, and she and the other girls of The Bombay Duck entertain and delight their patrons in an effort to distract them from the wartime reality just outside the stage door. Yasmine and Patience rely on the strength of their history to keep the business afloat, but issues of loyalty and betrayal threaten their unbreakable kinship.

Yasmine and the Americans is a passionate love story for the ages.