Saving Face: A Novel

by Mansi Shah

Overview

The founder of a skincare line teeters on career-defining success when a bullish journalist sets out to write her inaugural profile, threatening to unearth her darkest secret—that she's not the wealthy socialite she portrays, but an immigrant of modest means who built a life on someone else's name. Perfect for readers of White Ivy and Yellowface.

People love a rags-to-riches story but hate a woman who lied to get ahead.

Ami Shah is on the brink of life-changing success. Her skin-care empire, Amala, is set for acquisition by a Fortune 500 company, and she has just been nominated for the Global Changemakers Award, the most revered entrepreneurial honor. There's just one problem: she's a complete and utter fraud.

Twenty years ago in Singapore, abandoned orphan Monica Joseph made a decision to steal her wealthy classmate's identity and move halfway around the world to build her life on someone else's name. For twenty years, she's managed to hide in plain sight…until an ambitious fledgling journalist sets out to write the inaugural full-length profile on her. With her carefully constructed persona and life's work now in jeopardy, Monica is left with no other choice: she must return to the scene of the crime—and the one place she vowed never to revisit.

Home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778368403
Publisher:	Park Row Books
Publication date:	08/12/2025
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mansi Shah writes novels centering Gujarati characters that speak to generational differences across the Indian diaspora, and she's the author of the acclaimed novels The Direction of the Wind and The Taste of Ginger. Shah was born in Toronto to Indian immigrants, raised in the midwestern United States, and is now based in Los Angeles, She left her long-time career as an entertainment attorney in Hollywood to travel the world and write full time. She loves to cook and is often experimenting on new culinary creations that blend Indian flavors with other cuisines.

Editorial Reviews

"A riveting exploration of cultural identity, ambition, and the consequences of choices made. Saving Face is a stunning portrait of a complex woman caught between privilege and poverty, truth and deception. An insightful, powerful, and deeply affecting novel that firmly establishes Shah as a major voice in contemporary fiction." —Paulette Kennedy, author of The Devil and Mrs. Davenport


"Mansi Shah does it again with a powerful exploration on finding your true identity and how far one woman would go in order to climb to the top. Saving Face is a deeply emotional and engrossing book with a Singapore setting that is brought to life in vivid detail." —Lyn Liao Butler, author of Someone Else's Life and The Tiger Mom's Tale

"A brilliant, thrilling ride that is beautifully illustrated and thought-provoking. An engrossing story about ambition, wealth, identity, and the weight of secrets, this novel immediately captivated me from the start and stayed with me long after turning the final page." —Namrata Patel, author of The Curious Secrets of Yesterday

“Both a thriller and a meditation, Saving Face invites us all to consider the lies we are compelled to tell, for society and for ourselves. Shah has crafted an incisive and empathetic look at the sacrifices women of color must make to achieve success.” —Vaishnavi Patel, New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi

From the Publisher