America reads Danielle Steel. And so does the rest of the world. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print, and every one of her books is a number one bestseller. In short, Danielle Steel is the most popular author writing today.

From an education in New York and Europe to a professional background in public relations and advertising, Ms. Steel moved on quickly to her literary career and has been hard at work writing ever since. Often, she works on five books and several movies at a time--researching one storyline, writing another, and editing the third. Still, she often spends two to three years researching and developing a single project. In the heat of a first draft, it is not uncommon for her to spend 18 to 20 hours a day glued to her 1946 Olympia manual typewriter.

Ms. Steel maintains a high interest in the welfare and well-being of children. She has raised nine of her own. And they keep her busy, as she juggles writing and family. Ms. Steel leads a quiet family life and spends most of her time writing.

Set against a vivid backdrop of war and change, Silent Honour tells of the triumph of a woman caught between cultures and determined to survive.

In August 1941 Hiroko, eighteen years old and torn between her mother's belief in ancient traditions and her father's passion for modern ideas, leaves Kyoto to come to America for an education. To Hiroko, California is a different world - a world of barbecues, station wagons and college. Her cousins in California have become more American than Japanese - and Hiroko also finds a link between her old and new worlds when she becomes friendly with Peter, her uncle's university assistant.

But on December 7 1941 Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese, and within hours, war is declared. Suddenly Hiroko has become an enemy in a foreign land. Terrified, begging to go home, she is ordered by her father to stay. But as the military is empowered to remove the Japanese from their communities, Hiroko and her Californian family end up in the detention centre, where they fight to stay alive amid the drama of life and death in the camp.

This extraordinary novel creates a portrait of human tragedy and strength, divided loyalties and love. Danielle Steel portrays the human cost of that terrible time in history, as well as the remarkable courage of a people whose honour and dignity transcended the chaos that surrounded them.