Educated
A Memoir
by Tara Westover
“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
About This Book
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.
About the Author
Tara Westover
Tara Westover is an American author now based in the UK. Growing up in Idaho with a father who rejected public education, she never attended school. Her childhood was split between working in her father's junkyard and helping her mother—a self-taught herbalist and midwife—prepare herbal remedies. At seventeen, she entered a classroom for the first time. That moment sparked a decade-long pursuit of education. She graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. After earning an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, she spent time as a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2010. She later returned to Cambridge and completed her PhD in history in 2014.