The Invisible Girls A Memoir

by Thebarge, Sarah

• ISBN13: 9781455523917
• ISBN10: 1455523917
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-16
• Publisher: Jericho Books

Summary

Sarah Thebarge has fled from her old life: Eighteen months of grueling breast cancer treatment that left her physically and emotionally scarred before her twenty-ninth birthday. Starting over in Portland, Oregon, a chance encounter on the train with an exhausted African mother and her daughters sparks a relationship that will challenge convention and change all of their lives. A refugee from Somalia whose husband has left her, Hadhi has been forced to raise five daughters in a country she doesn't understand. With no working knowledge of food stamps or American kitchen appliances, Hadhi and her family are on the brink of starvation in their own home, "invisible" in a neighborhood of strangers. As Sarah helps Hadhi and the girls navigate American life, the division between religions - Christian and Muslim fundamentalism - and cultures blur into lasting friendship, and unconditional love. Intertwining accounts of her fundamentalist roots and cancer battle with Hadhi's own struggle for survival, Thebarge challenges us to step out of our comfort zone and see even the most marginalized "invisible" people for who they really are.

Author Biography

Sarah Thebarge is an international speaker and the author of The Invisible Girls, named a World Magazine 2013 Notable Book. Sarah earned her physician assistant degree at Yale and was studying journalism at Columbia when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In spite of nearly losing her life to cancer, she went on to care for refugees in the United States and provide medical care to people living in the developing world. In addition to practicing medicine in Togo, she served in the Dominican Republic and started a clinic in Kenya for children who lost their parents to AIDS. Sarah is a spokesperson for Compassion International. She returns to San Francisco when she is not traveling the world.