Educated: A Memoir#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WITH FOUR MILLION COPIES SOLD • “A heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir about striding beyond the limitations of birth and environment into a better life.”—USA Today One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times • #6 New York Times Readers Pick for the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of the Year • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, and many more Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. “Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue |
Contents
| 3 | |
The Midwife | 13 |
Cream Shoes | 24 |
Apache Women | 31 |
Honest Dirt | 41 |
Shield and Buckler | 54 |
The Lord Will Provide | 67 |
Tiny Harlots | 76 |
Im from Idaho | 198 |
A Knight Errant | 207 |
The Work of Sulphur | 216 |
Waiting for the Moving Water | 223 |
If I Were a Woman | 228 |
Pygmalion | 235 |
Graduation | 244 |
PART THREE | 253 |
Perfect in His Generations | 84 |
Shield of Feathers | 92 |
Instinct | 98 |
Fish Eyes | 104 |
Silence in the Churches | 112 |
My Feet No Longer Touch Earth | 122 |
No More a Child | 132 |
Disloyal Man Disobedient Heaven | 142 |
PART | 151 |
To Keep It Holy | 153 |
Blood and Feathers | 160 |
In the Beginning | 167 |
Recitals of the Fathers | 174 |
Skullcap | 182 |
What We Whispered and What We Screamed | 187 |
Hand of the Almighty | 255 |
fearfully and wonderfully made | 265 |
A Brawling Woman in a Wide House | 274 |
Sorcery of Physics | 279 |
The Substance of Things | 284 |
West of the Sun | 290 |
Four Long Arms Whirling | 297 |
Gambling for Redemption | 306 |
Strangers and Pilgrims | 314 |
watching the buffalo | 320 |
Educated | 327 |
Acknowledgments | 331 |
A Note on the Text | 333 |
Further Reading | 335 |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon asked Audrey bathroom began believed brother Buck's Peak called Cambridge Charles church Dad's David Runciman doctor drive drove Emily eyes face father feet felt fingers forklift Gates Cambridge Scholarship Gates scholarship girl Grandma hand head heard homeschool horses Idaho Illuminati imagined Joseph Smith junkyard kitchen knew later laughed lecture listened living looked loved Luke Luke's memory midwife mind minutes Mormon Mormon Tabernacle Choir morning Mother mountain moved never night parents positive liberty Professor Steinberg pulled purlins Randy Weaver remember returned Richard Ruby Ridge Sadie scrap screamed seemed seen Shawn shouted smile someone stared stay stood stopped story sure talked Tara tell thing thought tinctures told took town trailer tried trying turned Tyler voice waiting walked wanted watched week woman words