Sue Mullin is manager-editor of the Calendar department for The Miami Herald. She asked this of Sadia Shepard, who has written ``The Girl From Foreign: A Memoir'' (Penguin Books, $25.95 hardcover and $16 paperback):

Q: Your search for your religious and cultural identity in India -- making discoveries about your late Jewish grandmother, how her ancestors were shipwrecked there and how she came to be married to a Muslim and moved to Pakistan to be with him after the partition -- was a true odyssey. It's one that continues with you, the daughter of a white Protestant father from Colorado and a Muslim mother from Pakistan. We have many blended families and cultures in South Florida. Is there something that binds the mosaic of your family's past together and gives you peace, satisfaction, strength or some other resolution?

A: My grandmother spent her last years in Miami and we spent a lot of time together in Coral Gables while my parents taught in the UM Architecture Department, so it is especially meaningful to return for the Book Fair.

As Americans, and especially in South Florida, we are all products of a hybrid culture, and are always fashioning an identity out of the disparate elements that have formed to create us. I think one of the strengths of having a varied ancestry is to have an opportunity to share ideas and experiences with those who might be different from us, whom we might not always agree with, or whom might not agree with one another. I have cousins settled in both Israel and Pakistan -- two very different countries which were established at almost the same time. Because of my grandparents' marriage, their descendants, both Jews and Muslims, are tied to one another, in some small way. When I read the news, I'm reminded of the different viewpoints behind each story, the human side behind every headline. This strikes me as an unexpected gift of having a mixed background, something I share with many Americans.

• Shepard appears at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Pavilion B with Kati Marton (``Enemies of the People: A Family Journey to America'') and Ariel Sabar (``My Father's Paradise'').

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