Beneath My Smile

By recalling memories and feelings from her childhood, Beneath My Smile introduces the reader to a large, varied cast of individuals who come and go in Anna Bella’s life—some leaving, some staying, but all leaving their footprint nonetheless. Heart-wrenching accounts of the tumultuous breakdown of her parents’ marriage, being kidnapped by one parent in order to punish and control the other, her father and stepmother’s abuse and neglect, sexual abuse at the hands of those who should have been trustworthy, the complicated birth of her children, the development of her career, cycles of hopefulness and disappointment, and the deep desire to find love and stability are but a handful of weighty events explored in this rich, raw, honest memoir. Traveling from Trinidad to Canada to the various locations in the United States, Anna shows us what it means to boldly strike out on the uncharted territory of the heart—yes, getting misled, beaten, and sometimes lost along the way, but always being guided home by looking to the heavens and faithfully following her soul’s truest melody.