The Invisible Girls

Twenty-seven-year-old Sarah Thebarge had it all: a Yale graduate working on her second Ivy League degree and browsing engagement rings with her boyfriend, her future seemed assured. Then the unthinkable happened: Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer. Eighteen months of grueling treatments destroyed her body, her relationship, and her faith, leaving her feeling unrecognizable to herself, and invisible to others.

Starting over in Portland, Oregon, a chance encounter on the train with an exhausted African mother and her daughters changes everything. A Somali refugee whose husband had left her, Hadhi was struggling to raise five young daughters, half a world a way from her war torn homeland. Alone in a strange country, Hadhi and the girls were on the brink of starvation in their own home, "invisible" to their neighbors and to the world. As Sarah helped Hadhi and the girls navigate American life, her outreach to the family became a source of courage and a lifeline for herself.

Poignant, at times shattering, Sarah Thebarge's riveting memoir ultimately challenges each one of us to step out of our comfort zone and see even the most marginalized "invisible" people for who they really are.