An Invisible Thread
The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny
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4.4 • 65 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
This 10th anniversary edition of the beloved #1 New York Times bestseller includes a new introduction and afterword by the author. Chronicling the lifelong friendship between a busy sales executive and a disadvantaged young boy that began with one small gesture of kindness, this is a “ray of hope for a better future, as well as an assurance that love is a stronger force than injustice and inequality” (Sybrina Fulton, mother of Travyon Martin and coauthor of Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin).
Stopping was never part of the plan...
She was a successful ad sales rep in Manhattan. He was a homeless, eleven-year-old panhandler on the street. He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But then something stopped her in her tracks, and she went back. And she continued to go back, again and again. They met up nearly every week for years and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades.
Whatever made me notice him on that street corner so many years ago is clearly something that cannot be extinguished, no matter how relentless the forces aligned against it. Some may call it spirit. Some may call it heart. It drew me to him, as if we were bound by some invisible, unbreakable thread. And whatever it is, it binds us still.
Now with new material that brings the life-changing story up to date for its tenth anniversary, An Invisible Thread is “a book capable of restoring our faith in each other and in the very idea that maybe everything is going to be okay after all” (Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay It Forward).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to an old Chinese proverb, there's an invisible thread that connects two people who are destined to meet and influence each other's lives. With Tresniowski (The Vendetta), Schroff tells how, as a busy advertising sales executive in New York, she easily passed panhandlers every day. One day, 11-year-old Maurice's plea for spare change caused Schroff to turn around and offer to buy him lunch. Thereafter, Schroff and Maurice met for dinner each week and slowly shared their life stories. Maurice's tales about his crack addict mother, absent father, and array of drug-dealing uncles were only part of his desperate longing for a life in a safe neighborhood in an apartment with more than one room. As they grow to depend on each other, Maurice asks Schroff to attend his school's parents' night, where his teacher asks Schroff not to abandon the boy. In some weeks, the meals they share become some of the few he has, because any money his mother might "earn" goes to her habit. As Schroff relates Maurice's story, she tells of her own father's alcoholism and abuse, and readers see how desperately these two need each other in this feel-good story about the far-reaching benefits of kindness.
Customer Reviews
An Invisible Thread
One of the best books on surviving really difficult childhoods I've read. The message our society should be getting is that children are deeply wounded and traumatized by alcohol and drug fueled adults who should be protecting them. This book would be an excellent tool for teachers and counsellors in the fight against alcohol and drug abuse from a child's perspective. Rarely do we see this carnage through a child's eyes. Marjch
An invisible Thread
I could not stop turning the pages,.,my tears flowed through each page. From my own life I know the power and beauty of touching lives..I know pain and loss and Laura Shroff said it all exactly the way it is. What an amazing woman,,the greatest gift in life is touching someone's life..give them hope and love and she did that for Maurice who was so hungry and needy and most of all accepting and so anxious to better his life. It has been a very long time since I read such a wonderful book..each word hugged my soul. Arlene Ben-Zur