These Broken Roads
Scammed & Vindicated: One Woman’s Story
by Sibylline Press
Available wherever books are sold
2023 New York Big Book Award Winner in the African American Non-Fiction category
Honorable mention in the Memoir category of the 2023 New York Book Festival
these broken roads summary
Donna Marie Hayes had fortitude and smarts. She’d already survived so much. In this gripping memoir, Hayes recounts the story of her impoverished Jamaican childhood and eventual immigration to the United States at 14. She weathered hardships, including a strict church upbringing, family abandonment, and marriages fused with domestic violence. Then she breaks free as a single mother.
A decade later, Donna is educated and at the top of her game in New York City. Her career is soaring on Wall Street and she is starring in her own one-woman off-Broadway shows. Yet at the peak of her triumph, she is scammed and robbed of her life’s savings by the “love of her life” whom she meets on an online dating site.
The mastermind was not the usual faceless online fraudster, hiding behind a computer screen in a faraway land; rather, he immersed himself in her life, tattooed her initials across his chest, proposed and slept beside her for a year and a half, dutifully pretending to be the love of her life. In fact he was patiently waiting to rob her.
This is the empowering story of how that woman triumphed and reclaimed her power, turning the scam and her choice of questionable partners into valuable life lessons along the broken roads of her life. Remarkably, it was these broken roads that ultimately led her to extraordinary and fascinating destinations.
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“These Broken Roads is Hayes’ Cinderella story beginning in the Jamaican countryside and ending in an Uptown Penthouse. It is a journey from betrayal to self-discovery. It is a coming of age that is at once human and hopeful. Hayes’ life, though complicated by duplicity is consistently buoyed by a strength and competence that is in moments, breathtaking. Pick up this book. You will not be able to put it down.” — Joselin Linder, author of The Family Gene, HarperCollins
“Compelling from the first page and the last had me in tears, in a good way. I felt both grounded, in the city I adore, as the author weaves together her life in NYC and I felt transported when she reveals her early childhood in Jamaica. It touched my heart and made me remember my true self as the author reflects with poignancy, maturity, and realness that come with living, surviving, and thriving. No doubt, this book will elevate your spirits and captivate your imagination.” — Rebeka Bieber
“Magical, painful, cathartic, and thrilling at once.” — Thomas G. Waites, Actor, Teacher, and Filmmaker
"A glorious testament to the triumphant spirit we all have within. Donna shares her remarkable life story with incredible vulnerability and clarity. Taking us on a journey from rural Jamaica to the high rises of the Upper East side of Manhattan, filled with challenges that are ultimately turned into lessons….for us all. Bravo, a beautiful read." — Annie McGovern, Actor, Director, Producer, Singer, and VP of Simulations, Inc.
“A riveting memoir, These Broken Roads is an against all odds story.” — Robin Bobbé, Owner of Modernager Casting
“This book had me on the edge of my seat! A very inspiring and touching story of heartache, heartbreak, and breakthrough. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.” — J. Beck
Are you ready for your broken roads to lead to fascinating destinations?
Rediscover your purpose and ignite your passion with Midlife Empowerment Coach, Donna Marie Hayes, an ICF-certified coach with a wealth of expertise in employee relations, coaching, and training.
