From Kabul to a home by the Mexican sea ... A life-affirming, sea-change memoir by the author of the international bestseller The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul.
In answer to the question of what happened following her New York Times bestseller Kabul Beauty School, Deborah Rodriguez is back with a new memoir: “a brave and often hilarious tale of reinvention, told with pioneer woman brio and wicked humor” (Wendy Lawless, bestselling author of Chanel Bonfire).
When her family faces kidnap threats after the publication of her first book, Deborah Rodriguez is forced to flee Kabul, leaving behind her friends, her possessions, the beauty school she helped found and her two beloved businesses: a hair salon and a coffee shop.
Irreverent, insightful, and blatantly honest, Deborah takes us along on her inspiring journey of self-discovery and renewal in her search for a life after Afghanistan. She first lands in California. After a year living on top of a mountain in the Napa Valley she feels like a misfit teetering on the brink of sanity. Where was that fearless redhead who stared danger in the face back in Kabul?
After being advised to commune with glowworms and sit in contemplation for one year, Rodriguez, at the age of forty-nine, makes a decision. One way or another she’s going to get the old Deb back. She packs her life and her cat into her Mini Cooper and and heads south to a pretty seaside town in Mexico.
Despite having no plan, no friends, and no Spanish speaking skills, a determined Rodriguez soon finds herself swept up in a world where the music never stops and a new life can begin. Her adventures and misadventures among the expats and locals help lead the way to new love, new family, and a new sense of herself.
Home is now an unassuming little house on Carnaval Street. There she struggles to learn Spanish, works out with strippers and spends her Sunday nights watching clowns. In the magic of Mexico, she finds the hairdresser within, and builds the life she never knew was possible—a life on her own terms.