Educated: A Memoir

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • 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

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize

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

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times, Newsday, New York Post, theSkimm, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Self, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Paste, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, LibraryReads, Book Riot, Pamela Paul, KQED, New York Public Library

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for a decade. She graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014.

“Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Westover is a keen and honest guide to the difficulties of filial love, and to the enchantment of embracing a life of the mind.”—The New Yorker

“Heart-wrenching . . . a beautiful testament to the power of education to open eyes and change lives.”—Amy Chua, The New York Times Book Review

“A coming-of-age memoir reminiscent of The Glass Castle.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Westover’s one-of-a-kind memoir is about the shaping of a mind. . . . In briskly paced prose, she evokes a childhood that completely defined her. Yet it was also, she gradually sensed, deforming her.”—The Atlantic

“Tara Westover is living proof that some people are flat-out, boots-always-laced-up indomitable. Her new book, Educated, is a heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir about striding beyond the limitations of birth and environment into a better life. . . . ★★★★ out of four.”—USA Today

“[Educated] left me speechless with wonder. [Westover’s] lyrical prose is mesmerizing, as is her personal story, growing up in a family in which girls were supposed to aspire only to become wives—and in which coveting an education was considered sinful. Her journey will surprise and inspire men and women alike.”—Refinery29

“Riveting . . . Westover brings readers deep into this world, a milieu usually hidden from outsiders. . . . Her story is remarkable, as each extreme anecdote described in tidy prose attests.”—The Economist

“A subtle, nuanced study of how dysfunction of any kind can be normalized even within the most conventional family structure, and of the damage such containment can do.”—Financial Times

“Whether narrating scenes of fury and violence or evoking rural landscapes or tortured self-analysis, Westover writes with uncommon intelligence and grace. . . . One of the most improbable and fascinating journeys I’ve read in recent years.”—Newsday

Educated is a memoir about Tara Westover’s journey from a fiercely isolated childhood in rural Idaho to earning advanced degrees at Cambridge, and it is ultimately about what it costs to claim your own identity. It is a story of education, but also of family loyalty, abuse, memory, and the painful process of learning to trust your own mind.

Tara grows up as the youngest of seven children in a strict survivalist Mormon family led by her father, Gene, who distrusts the government, public schools, hospitals, and much of the outside world. The family lives in near-total isolation, and Tara receives no formal schooling for most of her childhood. She is not taken to doctors, not given a standard birth record early in life, and is expected to contribute to the family’s dangerous work, especially in her father’s scrapyard and in other survivalist projects. Her mother, Faye, works as an herbalist and midwife, but after a serious injury, she becomes increasingly dependent on unproven remedies and less able to challenge Gene’s authority. In this environment, Tara grows up learning that obedience is expected and that questioning the family’s beliefs can feel like betrayal.

Even as a child, Tara is curious. She begins to sense that there is a wider world beyond the mountains, but that world is presented to her as dangerous, corrupt, and sinful. Her father’s beliefs are absolute, and the emotional tone of the household is shaped by fear, control, and unpredictability. One of Tara’s brothers, Shawn, initially seems to be a protector, but over time he becomes abusive and violent. The abuse is one of the most devastating parts of the memoir because it shows how Tara’s home, which should have been a place of safety, becomes a place of fear. The family’s isolation makes it easier for harm to continue unchecked, and Tara has to survive not only ignorance, but also denial.

Her first steps toward independence begin almost by accident. One of her brothers leaves home to attend college, and this creates a kind of opening for Tara to imagine another life. She starts teaching herself enough math, grammar, and other subjects to take the ACT, even though she has never been in a classroom. Her determination is extraordinary because it is built from almost nothing. She has no proper schooling, no support from her father, and very little guidance, yet she manages to gain admission to Brigham Young University. That moment marks the beginning of a profound transformation. For the first time, she enters a structured academic world and discovers history, philosophy, science, and perspectives that challenge everything she has been taught.

College is both liberating and disorienting for Tara. At BYU, she realizes how much she does not know, but she also begins to understand that ignorance is not a personal failure. It is something that has been imposed on her. Education opens her mind, but it also creates distance between her and her family. She is no longer able to accept the world as her father defines it. As she learns about events like the Holocaust, the civil rights movement, and broader historical and political realities, her old life begins to look smaller and more fragile. She becomes more capable, but also more alone. The more she grows, the harder it becomes to remain emotionally tied to the family system she came from.

The memoir also explores the conflict between love and self-preservation. Tara does not simply reject her family with ease. She continues to long for their approval and tries many times to maintain a relationship with them. But as she becomes more aware of abuse, manipulation, and the demands of loyalty, she is forced to confront the fact that staying close to her family may require abandoning herself. This becomes especially painful in relation to her father, whose authority over the family is both religious and emotional. Tara’s struggle is not just about leaving home physically. It is about leaving behind a worldview that tells her her own perceptions cannot be trusted.

Her academic journey continues beyond BYU to Harvard and then to Cambridge, where she completes advanced study and earns a PhD in history. These achievements are remarkable not just because of the prestige of the institutions, but because of where she began. The contrast between her childhood and her adult life is one of the memoir’s most striking features. She moves from a life defined by scrap metal, fear, and rigid control to one of scholarship, travel, and intellectual freedom. Yet the memoir never presents this as a simple success story. Every step forward comes with grief. Education gives her power, but it also makes it impossible to return to the innocence of belonging.

By the end of the memoir, Tara has become someone who can think for herself, name what happened to her, and tell her own story. That is the real meaning of being educated in this book. It is not just about learning facts or earning degrees. It is about learning to see clearly, to question inherited truths, and to accept the painful cost of independence. Educated is ultimately a memoir about becoming yourself when the people who raised you cannot or will not accept that person. It is honest, intense, and deeply human, showing how knowledge can be both a gift and a wound.