When ABC News' Good Morning America asked its viewers to write essays describing true-life experiences, the network never imagined receiving more than twenty thousand pages of inspiring stories. After a panel of bestselling authors and editors chose three finalists, America was given the opportunity to vote on which aspiring author's story would be published. This audiobook is the result of the most ambitious search ever conducted to publish an extraordinary life story.

Farah Ahmedi is born into the world just as the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets reaches its peak in Afghanistan. Bombs are falling all over her country, and her native Kabul is swelling with thousands of people looking for homes and jobs. When Farah steps on a land mine on her way to school, her world becomes much smaller than the dreams and hopes in her heart.

The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky recounts an epic journey. It deftly interweaves a childhood in Afghanistan — where the classrooms are naked chambers with only chalkboards on the walls — with an American adolescence, where teenagers struggle to decide whether to try out for school plays and where to go to college.

Thanks to a number of good people who crossed her path at critical moments, Farah is thriving. She is actively enjoying the realization of her childhood dreams. Farah is living proof that not only can the human heart endure, it can also thrive. The Story of My Life is our new great American memoir.