In 1995, Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote a bestselling book called Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. The book features 366 essays about how to live life with simplicity and grace, but most of all gratitude. Oprah Winfrey called it her “favorite book,” of the year.

The book sold seven million copies and counting.

After Simple Abundance, Ms. Ban Breathnach became, in a way, more of a movement than a single person. That’s where the road turned. In 2010 she wrote, Peace and Plenty: Finding Your Path to Financial Serenity, a memoir that told a tale not filled with just happy platitudes. After her success, Ms. Ban Breathnach went on a spending spree (even buying Isaac Newton’s Chapel), lost all of her millions, and entered into a marriage that turned out to be a complicated nightmare rather than simple abundance.

About Peace and Plenty, Ms. Breathnach said at the time, “I wanted to create a safe space to have this conversation without shame. I know first-hand the self-beating and shaming that a woman does to herself when she overdraws the checking account or clicks the buy button on eBay or hides purchases in the trunk of the car.”

Her career as a writer and inspirational speaker had taken a hard turn toward the darker side of reality, while also beginning an ongoing conversation about money and woman’s issues.

On Tuesday, May 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Ms. Ban Breathnach is bringing this conversation to Edgartown, in particular The Old Whaling Church. The event will be hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network and is sponsored by the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore and Ameriprise Financial.

The cost for the program is $15 for members and $25 for nonmembers and walkins.

For more information, visit mvwomensnetwork.org.