Join us at Curious Iguana when Shabnam Samuel discusses her new memoir, A Fractured Life, with author Sweta Srivastava Vikram.

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, Shabnam Samuel beautifully shares not only an immigrant’s story but also 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.

Free event; no registration required. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

About the author:

Shabnam Samuel is a writer, coach, social media trainer, and the founder of the Panchgani Writers’ Retreat (link: http://panchganiwritersretreat.com), an international writing retreat based out of Panchgani, India. The retreat incorporates mindful living along with creativity and wellness following Ayurveda principles, with yoga, meditation, and writing workshops.

Shabnam’s essays have been published online in Brain Child Magazine and Your Tango, and she hosts a local TV show, Dew Drops and Words, that broadcasts to 2.4 million viewers on the MHz network in the Washington, DC area. Shabnam is also a business coach and mentors with the Empowered Women International in Alexandria, Virginia, an organization that helps train low-income, immigrant, and refugee women on becoming successful entrepreneurs. When in India, Shabnam helps with the running of a local women’s artisan village outside Panchgani. She is married, has an adult son, and has lived inside the DC beltway for the last 30 years.