“Oprah needs to make this her
Book of the Year!”
“A simple and fluid narrative”
“Open and raw”
Reviews →
We all have the right to exist and no one should ever take that away from you in the name of culture, family name, kids, spouses, or any other reason.
So I write to prove that I exist.
~ The Author ~
ABANDONED BY HER PARENTS as a three-year-old, and ultimately leaving her home country India for a new life in America as a young mother of a three-year-old son, this is not only an immigrant’s story, but a poignant and powerful memoir that is at first, one of sadness and continuing adversity, but ultimately one of strength, purpose, and the universal triumph of hope. It is a story of dislocation, disruption, and despair, and brings focus to the silencing of girlhood and womanhood and how with time, love, and support we can work our way out of that silence.
SHABNAM SAMUEL was twenty-seven when she moved to the US, carrying with her a troubled marriage, an almost estranged husband, and a three-year-old son. Hoping to create a fresh start from everything that was holding her down, it took Shabnam twenty-five years of trials and tribulations to finally find her voice, her strength, and her place in this world.
ABOUT SHABNAM
Shabnam Samuel is a writer, coach, social media trainer, and the founder of the Panchgani Writers’ Retreat, an international writing retreat based out of Panchgani, India. As a writer, Shabnam has been writing ever since she can remember. Her essays have been published online in Brain Child Magazine and Your Tango.
Shabnam is also a business coach and she mentors with the Empowered Women International in Alexandria, Virginia, an organization that helps train low-income, immigrant, and refugee women on how to be successful.
~ IN SEPIA
Old pictures. Frayed postcards.
Pages from lost books…
Old pictures. Frayed postcards.
Pages from lost books…