The Invisible Girls: A Memoir

By Sarah Thebarge

Book Overview

Now with a new postscript and reading group guide, perfect for book clubs.

After nearly dying of breast cancer in her twenties, Sarah Thebarge fled her successful career, her Ivy League education, and a failed relationship, and moved nearly 3,000 miles from the East Coast to Portland, Oregon, hoping to quietly pick up the pieces of her broken life. Instead, a chance encounter on the train with a family of Somali refugees swept her into an adventure that changed all of their lives.

Half a world away from Somalia, Hadhi was fighting battles of her own. Abandoned by her husband, she was struggling to raise five young daughters in a culture she didn't understand. When their worlds collide with Sarah's, Hadhi and the girls were on the brink of starvation in their own home, "invisible" in a neighborhood of strangers. As Sarah helped Hadhi and the girls navigate American life, her unexpected outreach to the family became both a source of courage and a lifeline for herself.

Exquisite, at times shattering, Sarah's enthralling memoir invites readers into her story of finding connection, love, and redemption in the most unlikely of places.

All proceeds from the sale of the book go toward a college fund for the five Somali Invisible Girls. For details, visit www.sarahthebarge.com.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1455523925
• ISBN13: 9781455523924
• Release Date: April 2014
• Publisher: Jericho Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

One of those books that "changes your life"

I found this at Goodwill for 99 cents and thought "why not?" even though it didn't seem like my go-to genre. Then, I devoured this book. I stayed up reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore for 2 or 3 nights because I couldn't put it down. I generally don't like the super Christian-y books, but this woman survived 3 bouts of breast cancer, multiple other ailments, and then met a refugee family and poured her heart into helping them. She basically lived for the Somali refugees she met, she reminds me so much of myself (minus the religious devotion) because she was happiest when she was helping that poor mother and her 5 little girls. They had nothing when they emigrated to the US, ending up in Portland, OR (my hometown), and Sarah met them one day and then did all she could to take care of them. The love that she shared with the 5 little girls, and the emotional turmoil of Sarah's cancer, absolutely tore my heart out and stomped on it. I cried SO much it isn't even funny. I sad-cried, then I happy-cried, and then I finished the book and didn't know what to do with my life.