People love a rags-to-riches story. But they hate an imposter who lies to get ahead . . .

To all those who know her, Ami Shah is the epitome of glamour. She has unapologetically leveraged her privileged upbringing as the daughter of Indian aristocrats in Singapore to build her American skincare empire, Amala—a business that’s now set for a dream acquisition by a Fortune 500 company. There’s just one problem: she’s not the real Ami Shah.

Forty years earlier, a girl named Monica Joseph is abandoned at the Gate of Hope, a Singapore orphanage attached to a convent school. Given how she comes into the word, the most her academic prowess and etiquette earns her is a job as a maid for Ami, a schoolmate from the upper-class Shah family. Working a menial job with no other opportunities while Ami applies to university and then business school causes Monica to nurse a quiet rage at the unfairness of life. Until Monica steals not only Ami’s acceptance letter from the London Business School but also Ami’s identity and starts a whole new life on the other side of the world. And miraculously, she almost pulls it off.

When “Ami” is nominated for a life-changing entrepreneurial award and the media wants to learn her origin story, Monica’s carefully constructed persona and life’s work are in jeopardy. Monica knows there is only one surefire way to cover her tracks. She must return to the scene of crime, the place she vowed never to revisit: home.

MANSI SHAH was born in Toronto to Indian immigrants and raised in the midwestern United States. Her novels, which include The Taste of Ginger and The Direction of the Wind, centre on Gujarati characters and speak to generational differences across the Indian diaspora. Now based in Los Angeles, Shah left her long-time career as an entertainment attorney in Hollywood to travel the world and write full time. She loves to cook and frequently experiments with culinary creations that blend Indian flavors with those of other cuisines, and food often plays a prominent role in her books.

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