No Lipstick in Lebanon

Her devout mother was firmly against it. But as a teenager drifting through the drudgery of Addis Ababa’s slums, the possibility of earning dollars as a maid in Beirut was irresistible. Why shouldn’t a poor Ethiopian girl choose her own destiny? Except Meron Lemma had no idea what she was doing. The ugly truth hit Meron as she peered down thirteen storeys to the street below from her tempestuous Beirut penthouse. Trapped and mistreated by the harsh Madame and callous offspring, Meron wondered if she’d return to her mother in a coffin. Was jumping the only escape? Rich with bi-cultural detail, ‘No Lipstick in Lebanon’ is typical for Ethiopia’s domestic servants in Beirut today, succumbing to un-investigated horrors within ‘respectable’ family homes. Here, through the escalating suspense endured by our heroine, the unremitting Hell of Lebanese servitude is laid bare. ‘An amazing story,’ Watson Little Literary Agency ‘Heart-wrenching,’ Susijn Literary Agency ‘Extraordinary,’ Eve White Literary Agency