Educated by Tara Westover
She gazes at the valley below as the bus rolls down the highway, never stopping at her home in Buck's Peak, Idaho because she doesn't go to school. She has no birth certificate. She's never seen a doctor or nurse. Along with her survivalist father, mother, and siblings, Tara prepares for the "Days of Abomination, watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip with blood". This is the only life she knows.
Tara Westover's intoxicating words tell a story that few of us can fathom. She chronicles her life growing up in an authoritarian Mormon household, with a controlling father at the helm. She works grueling, dangerous hours with her brothers in a junkyard, salvaging steel and car batteries to put food on the table. She becomes a reluctant apprentice to her mother's role as a midwife and mixer of herbal remedies. She endures violent abuse from a brother, learning to appease him in order to escape an even worse fate. She listens to the preaching of a father who accuses her of deeds of the Devil, while he basks in the glow of her heavenly voice. She's never heard of the horror of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement. This is the only life she knows.
When brother Tyler dares to go to college and encourages her to do the same, she follows his lead and eventually earns a degree from Brigham Young University. From there it's across the sea to Cambridge University, and the hallowed halls of Harvard. However, these documented, defining moments are wrought with anguish and pain. The joy and pride of great accomplishments are often followed by grave doubts, as she questions the decisions she's made. Loyalty and love of family are still at the center of her existence.
This memoir is a soul-crushing story of self-preservation. It's about one woman's courageous journey to discover the power of education beyond the unconventional confines of a small town in Idaho. It's about finding peace, acceptance, and happiness after a childhood of turmoil and isolation.
She gazes at the valley below as the bus rolls down the highway, never stopping at her home in Buck's Peak, Idaho because she doesn't go to school. She has no birth certificate. She's never seen a doctor or nurse. Along with her survivalist father, mother, and siblings, Tara prepares for the "Days of Abomination, watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip with blood". This is the only life she knows.
Tara Westover's intoxicating words tell a story that few of us can fathom. She chronicles her life growing up in an authoritarian Mormon household, with a controlling father at the helm. She works grueling, dangerous hours with her brothers in a junkyard, salvaging steel and car batteries to put food on the table. She becomes a reluctant apprentice to her mother's role as a midwife and mixer of herbal remedies. She endures violent abuse from a brother, learning to appease him in order to escape an even worse fate. She listens to the preaching of a father who accuses her of deeds of the Devil, while he basks in the glow of her heavenly voice. She's never heard of the horror of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement. This is the only life she knows.
When brother Tyler dares to go to college and encourages her to do the same, she follows his lead and eventually earns a degree from Brigham Young University. From there it's across the sea to Cambridge University, and the hallowed halls of Harvard. However, these documented, defining moments are wrought with anguish and pain. The joy and pride of great accomplishments are often followed by grave doubts, as she questions the decisions she's made. Loyalty and love of family are still at the center of her existence.
This memoir is a soul-crushing story of self-preservation. It's about one woman's courageous journey to discover the power of education beyond the unconventional confines of a small town in Idaho. It's about finding peace, acceptance, and happiness after a childhood of turmoil and isolation.
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