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Jasmine ( 1989) is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee set in the present about a young Indian woman in the United States who, trying to adapt to the American way of life in order to be able to survive, changes identities several times.

Jasmine's arranged marriage to a young Indian back in their home town ends abruptly when he is killed in a bombing. Still in her teens but already a widow, Jasmine flees India and, after an odyssey, arrives in Florida on a small boat and enters the United States as an illegal immigrant. During her first night in America, which she spends huddled together with some other illegal aliens in a disused motel, she kills the captain of the ship after he has raped her.

Aimlessly walking along a country road not knowing what to do next, Jasmine is picked up by a woman who has helped other illegal immigrants before her. After being given some basic introduction to U.S. society, she sets out to look for a fatherly friend of her dead husband's who is said to be working as a university professor. However, when Jasmine actually meets him she realizes that he holds some menial job and that for years he has been lying about it in his letters back home.

Disillusioned by this experience, Jasmine wanders on and gets a job as a nannyA nanny is defined as "a child's nurse". Often middle to upper class families employ nannies when they feel that their children need an "extra parent" because the parents feel that they do not have enough time for them. A nanny may perform tasks such as:. She falls in love with her employer, has a brief fling with him and soon realizes that it is time she moved on. She ends up in a small town in IowaIowa Flag of Iowa (In Detail) (Full size) State nickname: "The Hawkeye State Other U. States Capital Des Moines Largest City Des Moines Governor Thomas Vilsack Area Total % water Ranked 26th 145,743 km2 0. 71% Population Total ( 2000) Density Ranked 30th, where she attracts the attention of an old woman whose son, a rich and influential man, has been shot at and is now paralysedParalysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. Major causes are stroke, trauma, poliomyelitis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), botulism and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Paralysis may be localized (in a disorder called Be. Jasmine marries the man and, as her husband would like to have a child by her, is artificially inseminated. However, just when she starts feeling her pregnancyPregnancy is the process by which a mammalian female carries a live offspring from conception until it develops to the point where the offspring is capable of living outside the womb. It starts with conception, the process of fertilization to form a zygot she decides to leave her husband again and move to CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located in the western United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. The most populous and third largest state in the U. California is both physically and demographically diverse. The state's official nickname is "The Golden State", wh with her former employer, who has split up with his wife but was given custody of their daughter. Just over 20, Jasmine is going to be the motherA mother is typically the biological or social female parent of a child or offspring while the male parent is the father. The maternal bond describes the feelings the mother has for her (or another's) child. In the case of a mammal such as a human, the mo in a patchwork family .

Nowhere in the novel is there any mention of the police trying to track down the captain's killer.