Breaking Free by Abby Sher

Breaking Free by Abby Sher

Breaking Free: True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery, by award-winning author Abby Sher, explores the global issue of human sex trafficking from a survivor's point of view. It recounts the harrowing stories of three courageous women--Somaly Mam, Minh Dang, and Maria Suarez--who were all forced into sexual slavery as children. After escaping their captors, these three women could easily have become voiceless victims, lost to the horrors of their own histories; instead, they have each become leading advocates and activists in the anti-trafficking movement.

With help from Somaly, Maria, Minh, and many other survivors and counselors, Sher tells the riveting story of what it means to be liberated from sexual trafficking and find the trust and conviction to help educate new survivors. Told with breath-taking honesty and simplicity, Breaking Free: True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery sends the message that, even in the most tragic circumstances, the unwavering hope and compassion of the human spirit can and will shine through.

Abby Sher is a writer and performer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Self, Jane, Elle, HeeB, and Redbook, as well as in Modern Love: 50 Real and Astonishing Stories of Passion, Deceit, and Devotion and Beyond the Bedroom Door: Receiving it, Giving it, Loving it, Missing it. She's also the author of the young adult novel Kissing Snowflakes and the adult memoir Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying (Among Other Things). Abby has written and performed for Chicago's Second City, as well as New York's Upright Citizens Brigade and Magnet Theater. Her spouse and daughter live in Brooklyn with her.